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1 


THE  COMEDY  OF  HUMAN  LIFE 

By   H.  DE   BALZAC 


SCENES    FROM    PARISIAN    LIFE 


THE  LESSER  BOURGEOISIE 


BALZAC'S     NOVELS. 

Translated  by  Miss  K.  P.  Wokmeley. 

Already  Published: 
PEHE     GORIOT. 
DUCHESSE     DE     LANGEAIS. 
RISE  AND  FALL  OF  CESAR  BIROTTEAU. 
EUGENIE     GRANDET. 
COUSIN     PONS. 
THE     COUNTRY     DOCTOR. 
THE     TWO     BROTHERS. 
THE  ALKAHEST  (La  Recherche  de  V Absolu). 
MODESTE     MIGNON. 

THE  MAGIC    SKIN  (La  Peau  de  Chagrin). 
COUSIN     BETTE. 
LOUIS     LAMBERT. 
BUREAUCRACY  (Lea  Employed). 
SERAPHITA. 

SONS    OP    THE    SOIL   (Les  Paysans). 
FAME    AND    SORROW    (Chat-qui-pelote). 
THE   LILY    OF    THE    VALLEY. 
URSULA. 

AN   HISTORICAL   MYSTERY. 
ALBERT    SAVARUS. 
BALZAC:    A   MEMOIR. 
PIERRETTE. 
THE    CHOUANS. 
LOST    ILLUSIONS. 
A  GREAT  MAN  OF   THE    PROVINCES  IN 

PARIS. 
THE  BROTHERHOOD  OF    CONSOLATION. 
THE    VILLAGE    RECTOR. 
MEMOIRS    OF    TWO     YOUNG    MARRIED 

WOMEN. 
CATHERINE    DE'    MEDICI. 
LUCIEN   DE    RUBEMPRE. 

FERRAGUS,  CHIEF  OF  THE  DEVORANTS. 
A   START    IN   LIFE. 
THE    MARRIAGE    CONTRACT. 
BEATRIX. 

A  DAUGHTER   OF   EVE. 
THE    GALLERY    OF   ANTIQUITIES. 
GOBSECK. 

THE   LESSER   BOURGEOISIE. 
JUANA. 
THE   DEPUTY    OF   ARCIS. 


ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  Publishers,  Boston. 


HONORE    DE    BALZAC 

TRANSLATED     BY 

KATHARINE     PRESCOTT    WORMELEY 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie 


ROBERTS     BROTHERS 


3     SOMERSET     STREET 


BOSTON 
1896 


GIFT  OF 


tf/fa 


Copyright,  1896, 
By  Roberts  Brothers. 


All  rights  reserved. 


©mberstts  Preas: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge,  U.S.A. 


TO   CONSTANCE-VICTOIRE. 

Here,  madame,  is  one  of  those  books  which  come  into  the 
mind,  whence  no  one  knows,  giving  pleasure  to  the  author 
before  he  can  foresee  what  reception  the  public,  our  great 
present  judge,  will  accord  to  it.  Feeling  almost  certain  of  your 
sympathy  in  my  pleasure,  I  dedicate  the  book  to  you.  Ought 
it  not  to  belong  to  you  as  the  tithe  formerly  belonged  to  the 
Church  in  memory  of  God,  who  makes  all  things  bud  and  fruit 
in  the  fields  and  in  the  intellect  ? 

A  few  lumps  of  clay,  left  by  Moliere  at  the  feet  of  his  colossal 
statue  of  Tartuffe,  have  here  been  kneaded  by  a  hand  more 
daring  than  able  ;  but,  at  whatever  distance  I  may  be  from  the 
greatest  of  comic  writers,  I  shall  still  be  glad  to  have  used  these 
crumbs  in  showing  the  modern  hypocrite  in  action.  The  chief 
encouragement  that  I  have  had  in  this  difficult  undertaking  was 
in  finding  it  apart  from  all  religious  questions, — questions  which 
ought  to  be  kept  out  of  it  for  the  sake  of  one  so  pious  as  your- 
self ;  and  also  because  of  what  a  great  writer  has  lately  called 
our  present  "indifference  in  matters  of  religion." 

May  the  double  signification  of  your  names  be  for  my  book 
a  prophecy !  Deign  to  find  here  the  respectful  gratitude  of  him 
who  ventures  to  call  himself  the  most  devoted  of  your  servants. 

De  Balzac. 


796252 


CONTENTS. 


PAET   FIKST. 
THE  LESSER  BOURGEOIS  OF  PARIS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     Departing  Paris 1 

II.     The  History  of  a  Tyranny 10 

III.  COLLEVILLE 26 

IV.  The  Circle  of  M.  and  Mme.  Thuillier     .  35 
V.     A  Principal  Personage 53 

VI.     A  Keynote 75 

VII.     The  Worthy  Phellions 88 

VIII.     Ad  Majorem  Theodosis  Gloriam  ....  104 

IX.     The  Banker  of  the  Poor 129 

X.    How  Brigitte  was  Won 141 

XI.     The  Reign  of  Thf:odose 152 

XII.     Devils  against  Devils 160 

XIII.  The  Perversity  of  Doves 181 

XIV.  One  of  Ce"rizet's  Female  Clients      .     .     .  193 
XV.     The    Difficulties  that    Crop    up   in    the 

Easiest  of  Thefts 206 

XVI.     Du  Portail 227 

XVII.     In  which  the  Lamb  devours  the  Wolf     .  238 

XVIII.     Set  a  Saint  to  catch  a  Saint 256 


viii  Contents. 


PART     SECOND. 
THE  PARVENUS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.      PlIELLION   UNDER   A   NEW    ASPECT 269 

II.     The  Provencal's  Present  Position     .     .     .  281 

III.  Good  Blood  cannot  Lie 297 

IV.  Hungary  versus  Provence 320 

V.     Showing  how  near  the  Tarpeian  Rock  is  to 

the  Capitol 332 

VI.      'TWAS   THUS   THEY   BADE   ADIEU 349 

VII.     How  to  Shut  the  Door  in  People's  Faces  359 

VIII.     A  Run  of  Ill-Luck 370 

IX.     Give  and  Take 400 

X.     In  which  Ce'rizet   practises   the   Healing 
Art  and  the  Art  of  Poisoning  on  the 

same  Day 416 

XI.     Explanations  and  what  came  of  them      .  430 

XII.     A  Star .454 

XIII.  The  Man  who  thinks  the  Star  too  Bright  473 

XIV.  A  Stormy  Day 487 

XV.     At  du  Portail's 517 

XVI.     Checkmate  to  Thuillier 540 

XVJI.     In  the  Exercise  of  his  Functions  ....  554 


PART    I. 
THE  LESSER  BOURGEOIS   OF  PARIS. 


THE   LESSER  BOURGEOISIE. 


PART   I. 

THE   LESSER  BOURGEOIS   OF   PARIS. 


DEPARTING    PARIS. 

The  tourniquet  Saint- Jean,  the  narrow  passage  entered 
through  a  turnstile,  a  description  of  which  was  said  to  be 
so  wearisome  in  the  study  entitled  "  A  Double  Life M 
(Scenes  from  Private  Life),  that  naive  relic  of  old  Paris, 
has  at  the  present  moment  no  existence  except  in  our  said 
typography.  The  building  of  the  H6tel-de-Ville,  such  as 
we  now  see  it,  swept  away  a  whole  section  of  the  city. 

In  1830,  passers  along  the  street  could  still  see  the 
turnstile  painted  on  the  sign  of  a  wine-merchant,  but  even 
that  house,  its  last  asylum,  has  been  demolished.  Alas  ! 
old  Paris  is  disappearing  with  frightful  rapidity.  Here 
and  there,  in  the  course  of  this  history  of  Parisian  life, 
will  be  found  preserved,  sometimes  the  type  of  the  dwell- 
ings of  the  middle  ages,  like  that  described  in  "Fame 
and  Sorrow"  (Scenes  from  Private  Life),  one  or  two 
specimens  of  which  exist  to  the  present  day ;  sometimes 
a  house  like  that  of  Judge  Popinot,  rue  du  Fouarre,  a 
specimen  of  the  former  bourgeoisie  ;  here,  the  remains  of 
Fulbert's  house ;  there,  the  old  dock  of  the  Seine  as  it 
was  under  Charles  IX.  Why  should  not  the  historian  of 
French  society,  a  new  Old  Mortality,  endeavor  to  save 


2  Th<:  Lfsxer  Bourgeoisie. 

these  curious  expressions  of  the  past,  as  Walter  Scott's 
old  man  rubbed  up  the  tombstones?  Certainly,  for  the 
last  ten  years  the  outcries  of  literature  in  this  direction 
have  not  been  superfluous ;  art  is  beginning  to  disguise 
beneath  its  floriated  ornaments  those  ignoble  facades  of 
what  are  called  in  Paris  "  houses  of  product,"  which  one 
of  our  poets  has  jocosely  compared  to  chests  of  drawers. 

Let  us  remark  here,  that  the  creation  of  the  municipal 
commission  del  ornamento  which  superintends  at  Milan 
the  architecture  of  street  facades,  and  to  which  every 
house  owner  is  compelled  to  subject  his  plan,  dates  from 
the  seventeenth  century.  Consequently,  we  see  in  that 
charming  capital  the  effects  of  this  public  spirit  on  the 
part  of  nobles  and  burghers,  while  we  admire  their 
buildings  so  full  of  character  and  originality.  Hideous, 
unrestrained  speculation  which,  year  after  year,  changes 
the  uniform  level  of  storeys,  compresses  a  whole  apart- 
ment into  the  space  of  what  used  to  be  a  salon,  and 
wages  war  upon  gardens,  will  infallibly  react  on  Parisian 
manners  and  morals.  We  shall  soon  be  forced  to  live 
more  without  than  within.  Our  sacred  private  life,  the 
freedom  and  liberty  of  home,  where  will  they  be?  — 
reserved  for  those  who  can  muster  fifty  thousand  francs 
a  year!  In  fact,  few  millionaires  now  allow  themselves 
the  luxury  of  a  house  to  themselves,  guarded  by  a  court- 
yard on  the  street  and  protected  from  public  curiosity 
by  a  shady  garden  at  the  back. 

By  levelling  fortunes,  that  section  of  the  Code  which 
regulates  testamentary  bequests,  has  produced  these  huge 
stone  phalansteries,  in  which  thirty  families  are  often 
lodged,  returning  a  rental  of  a  hundred  thousand  francs 
a  year.  Fifty  years  hence  we  shall  be  able  to  count  on 
our  fingers  the  few  remaining  houses  which  resemble  that 
occupied,  at  the  moment  our  narrative  begins,  by  the 
Thuillier  family,  — a  really  curious  house  which  deserves 
the  honor  of  an  exact  description,  if  only  to  compare  the 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  3 

life  of  the  bourgeoisie  of  former  times  with  that  of 
to-day. 

The  situation  and  the  aspect  of  this  house,  the  frame 
of  our  present  Scene  of  manners  and  morals,  has,  more- 
over, a  flavor,  a  perfume  of  the  lesser  bourgeoisie,  which 
may  attract  or  repel  attention  according  to  the  taste  of 
each  reader. 

In  the  first  place,  the  Thuillier  house  did  not  belong 
to  either  Monsieur  or  Madame  Thuillier,  but  to  Made- 
moiselle Thuillier,  the  sister  of  Monsieur  Thuillier. 

This  house,  bought  during  the  first  six  months  which 
followed  the  revolution  of  July  by  Mademoiselle  Marie- 
Jeanne-Brigitte  Thuillier,  a  spinster  of  full  age,  stands 
about  the  middle  of  the  rue  Saint-Dominique-d'Enfer,  to 
the  right  as  you  enter  by  the  rue  d'Enfer,  so  that  the 
main  building  occupied  by  Monsieur  Thuillier  faces 
south. 

The  progressive  movement  which  is  carrying  the 
Parisian  population  to  the  heights  along  the  right  bank 
of  the  Seine  had  long  injured  the  sale  of  property  in 
what  is  called  the  "Latin  quarter,"  when  reasons,  which 
will  be  given  when  we  come  to  treat  of  the  character  and 
habits  of  Monsieur  Thuillier,  determined  his  sister  to  the 
purchase  of  real  estate.  She  obtained  this  property  for 
the  small  sum  of  forty-six  thousand  francs ;  certain  extras 
amounted  to  six  thousand  more;  in  all,  the  price  paid 
was  fifty-two  thousand  francs.  A  description  of  the 
property  given  in  the  style  of  an  advertisement,  and  the 
results  obtained  by  Monsieur  Thuillier' s  exertions,  will 
explain  by  what  means  so  many  fortunes  increased  enor- 
mously after  July,  1830,  while  so  many  others  sank. 

Toward  the  street  the  house  presents  a  facade  of  rough 
stone  covered  with  plaster,  cracked  by  weather  and  lined 
by  the  mason's  instrument  into  a  semblance  of  blocks  of 
cut  stone.  This  frontage  is  so  common  in  Paris  and  so 
ugly  that   the  city  ought   to  offer  premiums  to  house- 


4  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

owners  who  would  build  their  facades  of  cut-stone  blocks. 
Seven  windows  lighted  the  gray  front  of  this  house  which 
was  raised  three  storeys,  ending  in  a  mansard  roof 
covered  with  slate.  The  porte-cochere,  heavy  and  solid, 
showed  by  its  workmanship  and  style  that  the  front 
building  on  the  street  had  been  erected  in  the  days  of 
the  Empire,  to  utilize  a  part  of  the  courtyard  of  the  vast 
old  mansion,  built  at  an  epoch  when  the  quartier  d'Enfer 
enjoyed  a  certain  vogue. 

On  one  side  was  the  porter's  lodge;  on  the  other  the 
staircase  of  the  front  building.  Two  wings,  built  against 
the  adjoining  houses,  had  formerly  served  as  stables, 
coach-house,  kitchen  and  offices  to  the  rear  dwelling; 
but  since  1830,  they  had  been  converted  into  ware- 
rooms.  The  one  on  the  right  was  let  to  a  certain  M. 
Metivier,  jr.,  wholesale  dealer  in  paper;  that  on  the  left 
to  a  bookseller  named  Barbet.  The  offices  of  each  were 
above  the  warerooms;  the  bookseller  occupying  the  first 
storey,  and  the  paper-dealer  the  second  storey  of  the 
house  on  the  street.  Metivier,  jr.,  who  was  more  of  a 
commission  merchant  in  paper  than  a  regular  dealer, 
and  Barbet,  much  more  of  a  money  lender  and  discounter 
than  a  bookseller,  kept  these  vast  warerooms  for  the  pur- 
pose of  storing,  —  one,  his  stacks  of  paper,  bought  of 
needy  manufacturers,  the  other,  editions  of  books  given 
as  security  for  loans. 

The  shark  of  bookselling  and  the  pike  of  paper-dealing 
lived  on  the  best  of  terms,  and  their  mutual  operations, 
exempt  from  the  turmoil  of  retail  business,  brought  so 
few  carriages  into  that  tranquil  courtyard  that  the  con- 
cierge was  obliged  to  pull  up  the  grass  between  the 
paving-stones.  Messrs.  Barbet  and  Metivier  paid  a  few 
rare  visits  to  their  landlords,  and  the  punctuality  with 
which  they  paid  their  rent  classed  them  as  good  tenants ; 
in  fact,  they  were  looked  upon  as  very  honest  men  by 
the  Thuillier  circle. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  5 

As  for  the  third  floor  on  the  street,  it  was  made  into 
two  apartments;  one  of  which  was  occupied  by  M. 
Dutocq,  clerk  of  the  justice  of  peace,  a  retired  govern- 
ment employe,  and  a  frequenter  of  the  Thuillier  salon; 
the  other  by  the  hero  of  this  Scene,  about  whom  we  must 
content  ourselves  at  the  present  moment  by  fixing  the 
amount  of  his  rent,  —  namely,  seven  hundred  francs  a 
year,  —  and  the  location  he  had  chosen  in  the  heart  of 
this  well-filled  building,  exactly  three  years  before  the 
curtain  rises  on  the  present  domestic  drama. 

The  clerk,  a  bachelor  of  fifty,  occupied  the  larger  of 
the  two  apartments  on  the  third  floor.  He  kept  a  cook, 
and  the  rent  of  the  rooms  was  a  thousand  francs  a  year. 
Within  two  years  of  the  time  of  her  purchase,  Made- 
moiselle Thuillier  was  receiving  seven  thousand  two 
hundred  francs  in  rentals,  for  a  house  which  the  late 
proprietor  had  supplied  with  outside  blinds,  renovated 
within,  and  adorned  with  mirrors,  without  being  able  to 
sell  or  let  it.  Moreover,  the  Thuilliers  themselves,  nobly 
lodged,  as  we  shall  see,  enjoyed  also  a  fine  garden,  — 
one  of  the  finest  in  that  quarter, — the  trees  of  which 
shaded  the  lonely  little  street  named  the  rue  Neuve- 
Sainte-Catherine. 

Standing  between  the  courtyard  and  garden,  the  main 
building,  which  they  inhabited,  seems  to  have  been  the 
caprice  of  some  enriched  bourgeois  in  the  reign  of 
Louis  XIV. ;  the  dwelling,  perhaps,  of  a  president  of  the 
parliament,  or  that  of  a  tranquil  savant.  Its  noble  free- 
stone blocks,  damaged  by  time,  have  a  certain  air  of 
Louis-the-Fourteenth  grandeur;  the  courses  of  the  facade 
define  the  storeys;  panels  of  red  brick  recall  the  appear- 
ance of  the  stables  at  Versailles;  the  windows  have 
masks  carved  as  ornaments  in  the  centre  of  their  arches 
and  below  their  sills.  The  door,  of  small  panels  in  the 
upper  half  and  plain  below,  through  which,  when  open, 
the  garden  can  be  seen,  is  of  that  honest,  unassuming 


6  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 

style  which  was  often  employed  in  former  days  for  the 
porters'  lodges  of  the  royal  chateaux. 

This  building,  with  five  windows  to  each  course,  rises 
two  storeys  above  the  ground-floor,  and  is  particularly 
noticeable  for  a  roof  of  four  sides  ending  in  a  weather- 
vane,  and  broken  hero  and  there  by  tall,  handsome  chim- 
neys, and  oval  windows.  Perhaps  this  structure  is  the 
remains  of  some  great  mansion;  but  after  examining  all 
the  existing  old  maps  of  Paris,  we  find  nothing  which 
bears  out  this  conjecture.  Moreover,  the  title-deeds  of 
Mademoiselle  Thuillier  declare  that  the  owner  of  the 
property  under  Louis  XIV.  was  Petitot,  the  celebrated 
painter  in  miniature,  who  obtained  it  originally  from 
President  Lecamus.  We  may  therefore  believe  that 
Lecamus  lived  in  this  building  while  he  was  erecting  his 
more  famous  mansion  in  the  rue  de  Thongny. 

So  Art  and  the  legal  robe  have  passed  this  way  in 
turn.  How  many  instigations  of  needs  and  pleasures 
have  led  to  the  interior  arrangement*  of  the  dwelling! 
To  right,  as  we  enter  a  square  hall  forming  a  closed  ves- 
tibule, rises  a  stone  staircase  with  two  windows  looking 
on  the  garden.  Beneath  the  staircase  opens  a  door  to 
the  cellar.  From  this  vestibule  we  enter  the  dining- 
room,  lighted  from  the  courtyard,  and  the  dining-room 
communicates  at  its  side  with  the  kitchen,  which  forms 
a  continuation  of  the  wing  in  which  are  the  warerooms 
of  Metivier  and  Barbet.  Behind  the  staircase  extends, 
on  the  garden  side,  a  fine  study  or  office  with  two  large 
windows.  The  first  and  second  floor  form  two  complete 
apartments,  and  the  servants'  quarters  are  shown  by  the 
oval  windows  in  the  four-sided  roof. 

A  large  porcelain  stove  heats  the  square  vestibule,  the 
two  glass  doors  of  which,  placed  opposite  to  each  other, 
light  it.  This  room,  paved  in  black  and  white  marble, 
is  especially  noticeable  for  a  ceiling  of  beams  formerly 
painted  and  gilt,  but  which  had  since  received,  probably 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  7 

under  the  Empire,  a  coat  of  plain  white  paint.  The 
three  doors  of  the  study,  salon  and  dining-room,  sur- 
mounted by  oval  panels,  are  awaiting  a  restoration  that 
is  more  than  needed.  The  wood-work  is  heavy,  but  the 
ornamentation  is  not  without  merit.  The  salon,  panelled 
throughout,  recalls  the  great  century  by  its  tall  mantel- 
piece of  Languedoc  marble,  its  ceiling  decorated  at  the 
corners,  and  by  the  style  of  its  windows,  which  still 
retain  their  little  panes.  The  dining-room,  communicat- 
ing with  the  salon  by  a  double  door,  is  floored  with 
stone;  the  wood- work  is  oak,  unpainted,  and  an  atro- 
cious modern  wall-paper  has  been  substituted  for  the 
tapestries  of  the  olden  time.  The  ceiling  is  of  chestnut; 
and  the  study,  modernized  by  Thuillier,  adds  its  quota 
to  these  discordances. 

The  white  and  gold  mouldings  of  the  salon  are  so 
effaced  that  nothing  remains  of  the  gilding  but  reddish 
lines,  while  the  white  enamelling  is  yellow,  cracked,  and 
peeling  off.  Never  did  the  Latin  saying  Otium  cum 
dignitate  have  a  greater  commentary  to  the  mind  of  a 
poet  than  in  this  noble  building.  The  iron-work  of  the 
staircase  baluster  is  worthy  of  the  artist  and  the  magis- 
trate; but  to  find  other  traces  of  their  taste  to-day  in 
this  majestic  relic,  the  eyes  of  an  artistic  observer  are 
needed. 

The  Thuilliers  and  their  predecessors  have  frequently 
degraded  this  jewel  of  the  upper  bourgeoisie  by  the 
habits  and  inventions  of  the  lesser  bourgeoisie.  Look 
at  those  walnut  chairs  covered  with  horse-hair,  that 
mahogany  table  with  its  oilcloth  cover,  that  sideboard, 
also  of  mahogany,  that  carpet,  bought  at  a  bargain, 
beneath  the  table,  those  metal  lamps,  that  wretched  paper 
with  its  red  border,  those  execrable  engravings,  and  the 
calico  curtains  with  red  fringes,  in  a  dining-room,  where 
the  friends  of  Petitot  once  feasted !  Do  you  notice  the 
effect  produced  in  the  salon  by  those  portraits  of  Mon- 


8  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

sieur  and  Madame  and  Mademoiselle  Thuillier  by  Pierre 
Grassou,  the  artist  par  excellence  of  the  modern  bour- 
geoisie. Have  you  remarked  the  card-tables  and  the 
consoles  of  the  Empire,  the  tea-table  supported  by  a  lyre, 
and  that  species  of  sofa,  of  gnarled  mahogany,  covered 
in  painted  velvet  of  a  chocolate  tone?  On  the  chimney- 
piece,  with  the  clock  (representing  the  Bellona  of  the 
Empire),  are  candelabra  with  fluted  columns.  Curtains 
of  woollen  damask,  with  under-curtains  of  embroidered 
muslin  held  back  by  stamped  brass  holders,  drape  the 
windows.  On  the  floor  a  cheap  carpet.  The  handsome 
vestibule  has  wooden  benches,  covered  with  velvet,  and 
the  panelled  walls  with  their  fine  carvings  are  mostly 
hidden  by  wardrobes,  brought  there  from  time  to  time 
from  the  bedrooms  occupied  by  the  Thuilliers.  Fear, 
that  hideous  divinity,  has  caused  the  family  to  add  sheet- 
iron  doors  on  the  garden  side  and  on  the  courtyard  side, 
which  are  folded  back  against  the  walls  in  the  daytime, 
and  are  closed  at  night. 

It  is  easy  to  explain  the  deplorable  profanation  prac- 
tised on  this  monument  of  the  private  life  of  the  bour- 
geoisie of  the  seventeenth  century,  by  the  private  life  of 
the  bourgeoisie  of  the  nineteenth.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  Consulate,  let  us  say,  some  master-mason  having 
bought  the  ancient  building,  took  the  idea  of  turning  to 
account  the  ground  which  lay  between  it  and  the  street. 
He  probably  pulled  down  a  fine  porte-cochere  or  entrance 
gate,  flanked  by  little  lodges  which  guarded  the  charm- 
ing sejour  (to  use  a  word  of  the  olden  time),  and  pro- 
ceeded, with  the  industry,  of  a  Parisian  proprietor,  to 
impress  his  withering  mark  on  the  elegance  of  the  old 
building.  What  a  curious  study  might  be  made  of  the 
successive  title-deeds  of  property  in  Paris!  A  private 
lunatic  asylum  performs  its  functions  in  the  rue  des 
Batailles  in  the  former  dwelling  of  the  Chevalier  Pierre 
Bayard    du    Terrail,    once   without    fear    and    without 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  9 

reproach;  a  street  has  now  been  built  by  the  present 
bourgeois  administration  through  the  site  of  the  hotel 
Necker.  Old  Paris  is  departing,  following  its  kings 
who  abandoned  it.  For  one  masterpiece  of  architecture 
saved  from  destruction  by  a  Polish  princess  (the  hotel 
Lambert,  lie  Saint-Louis,  bought  and  occupied  by  the 
Princess  Czartoriska)  how  many  little  palaces  have 
fallen,  like  this  dwelling  of  Petitot,  into  the  hands  of 
such  as  Thuillier. 

Here   follow  the    causes   which    made   Mademoiselle 
Thuillier  the  owner  of  the  house. 


10  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


II. 

TTIE    ni STORY    OF    A    TYRANNY. 

At  the  fall  of  the  Villele  ministry,  Monsieur  Louis- 
Jerome  Thuillier,  who  had  then  seen  twenty-six  years' 
service  as  a  clerk  in  the  ministry  of  finance,  became  sub- 
director  of  a  department  thereof;  but  scarcely  had  he 
enjoyed  the  subaltern  authority  of  a  position  formerly 
his  lowest  hope,  when  the  events  of  July,  1830,  forced 
him  to  resign  it.  He  calculated,  shrewdly  enough,  that 
his  pension  would  be  honorably  and  readily  given  by  the 
new-comers,  glad  to  have  another  office  at  their  disposal. 
He  was  right;  for  a  pension  of  seventeen  hundred  francs 
was  paid  to  him  immediately. 

When  the  prudent  sub-director  first  talked  of  resign- 
ing, his  sister,  who  was  far  more  the  companion  of  his 
life  than  his  wife,  trembled  for  his  future. 

"What  will  become  of  Thuillier?  ''"  was  a  question 
which  Madame  and  Mademoiselle  Thuillier  put  to  each 
other  with  mutual  terror  in  their  little  lodging  on  a  third 
floor  of  the  rue  d'Argenteuil. 

"Securing  his  pension  will  occupy  him  for  a  time," 
Mademoiselle  Thuillier  said  one  day;  "but  I  am  think- 
ing of  investing  my  savings  in  a  way  that  will  cut  out 
work  for  him.  Yes;  it  will  be  something  like  adminis- 
trating the  finances  to  manage  a  piece  of  propert}7." 

"Oh,  sister!  you  will  save  his  life,"  cried  Madame 
Thuillier. 

"I  have  always  looked  for  a  crisis  of  this  kind  in 
Jerome's  life,"  replied  the  old  maid,  with  a  protecting 
air. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  11 

Mademoiselle  Thuillier  had  too  often  heard  her  brother 
remark:  "Such  a  one  is  dead;  he  only  survived  his  re- 
tirement two  years ;  "  she  had  too  often  heard  Colleville, 
her  brother's  intimate  friend,  a  government  employe 
like  himself,  say,  jesting  on  this  climacteric  of  bureau- 
crats, "We  shall  all  come  to  it,  ourselves,"  not  to  appre- 
ciate the  danger  her  brother  was  running.  The  change 
from  activity  to  leisure  is,  in  truth,  the  critical  period 
for  government  employes  of  all  kinds. 

Those  of  them  who  know  not  how  to  substitute,  or  per- 
haps cannot  substitute  other  occupations  for  the  work 
to  which  they  have  been  accustomed,  change  in  a  singu- 
lar manner:  some  die  outright;  others  take  to  fishing, 
the  vacancy  of  that  amusement  resembling  that  of  their 
late  employment  under  government;  others,  who  are 
smarter  men,  dabble  in  stocks,  lose  their  savings,  and 
are  thankful  to  obtain  a  place  in  some  enterprise  that  is 
likely  to  succeed,  after  a  first  disaster  and  liquidation, 
in  the  hands  of  an  abler  management.  The  late  clerk 
then  rubs  his  hands,  now  empty,  and  says  to  himself: 
"I  always  did  foresee  the  success  of  the  business."  But 
nearly  all  these  retired  bureaucrats  have  to  fight  against 
their  former  habits. 

"Some,"  Colleville  used  to  say,  "are  victims  to  a  sort 
of  spleen  peculiar  to  the  government  clerk ;  they  die  of 
a  checked  circulation ;  a  red-tapeworm  is  in  their  vitals. 
That  little  Poiret  could  n't  see  the  well-known  white 
carton  without  changing  color  at  the  beloved  sight;  he 
used  to  turn  from  green  to  yellow." 

Mademoiselle  Thuillier  was  considered  the  moving 
spirit  of  her  brother's  household;  she  was  not  without 
decision  and  force  of  character,  as  the  following  history 
will  show.  This  superiority  over  those  who  immediately 
surrounded  her  enabled  her  to  judge  her  brother,  although 
she  adored  him.  After  witnessing  the  failure  of  the 
hopes  she  had  set  upon  her  idol,  she  had  too  much  real 


12  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

maternity  in  her  feeling  for  him  to  let  herself  be  mis- 
taken as  to  his  social  value. 

Tbuillier  and  his  sister  were  children  of  the  head 
porter  at  the  ministry  of  finance.  Jerome  had  escaped, 
thanks  to  his  near-sightedness,  all  drafts  and  conscrip- 
tions. The  father's  ambition  was  to  make  his  son  a 
government  clerk.  At  the  beginning  of  this  century  the 
army  presented  too  many  posts  not  to  leave  various 
vacancies  in  the  government  offices.  A  deficiency  of 
minor  officials  enabled  old  Pere  Tbuillier  to  hoist  his  son 
upon  the  lowest  step  of  the  bureaucratic  hierarchy.  The 
old  man  died  in  1814,  leaving  Jerome  on  the  point  of 
becoming  sub-director,  but  with  no  other  fortune  than 
that  prospect.  The  worthy  Tbuillier  and  his  wife  (who 
died  in  1810)  had  retired  from  active  service  in  1806, 
with  a  pension  as  their  only  means  of  support;  having 
spent  what  property  they  had  in  giving  Jer6me  the 
education  required  in  these  days,  and  in  supporting  both 
him  and  his  sister. 

The  influence  of  the  Restoration  on  the  bureaucracy  is 
well  known.  From  the  forty  and  one  suppressed  depart- 
ments a  crowd  of  honorable  employes  returned  to  Paris 
with  nothing  to  do,  and  clamorous  for  places  inferior  to 
those  they  had  lately  occupied.  To  these  acquired  rights 
were  added  those  of  exiled  families  ruined  by  the  Revo- 
lution. Pressed  between  the  two  floods,  Jer6me  thought 
himself  lucky  not  to  have  been  dismissed  under  some 
frivolous  pretext.  He  trembled  until  the  day  when,  be- 
coming by  mere  chance  sub-director,  he  saw  himself 
secure  of  a  retiring  pension.  This  cursory  view  of  mat- 
ters will  serve  to  explain  Monsieur  Thuillier's  very 
limited  scope  and  knowledge.  He  had  learned  the  Latin, 
mathematics,  history,  and  geography  that  are  taught  in 
schools,  but  he  never  got  beyond  what  is  called  the 
second  class;  his  father  having  preferred  to  take  advan- 
tage of  a  sudden  opportunity  to  place  him  at  the  minis- 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  13 

try.  So,  while  young  Thuillier  was  making  his  first 
records  on  the  Grand-Livre,  he  ought  to  have  been 
studying  his  rhetoric  and  philosophy. 

While  grinding  the  ministerial  machine,  he  had  no 
leisure  to  cultivate  letters,  still  less  the  arts;  but  he 
acquired  a  routine  knowledge  of  his  business,  and  when 
he  had  an  opportunity  to  rise,  under  the  Empire,  to  the 
sphere  of  superior  employes,  he  assumed  a  superficial 
air  of  competence  which  concealed  the  son  of  a  porter, 
though  none  of  it  rubbed  into  his  mind.  His  ignorance, 
however,  taught  him  to  keep  silence,  and  silence  served 
him  well.  He  accustomed  himself  to  practise,  under 
the  imperial  regime,  a  passive  obedience  which  pleased 
his  superiors ;  and  it  was  to  this  quality  that  he  owed  at 
a  later  period  his  promotion  to  the  rank  of  sub-director. 
His  routine  habits  then  became  great  experience;  his 
manners  and  his  silence  concealed  his  lack  of  education, 
and  his  absolute  nullity  was  a  recommendation,  for  a 
cipher  was  needed.  The  government  was  afraid  of 
displeasing  both  parties  in  the  Chamber  by  selecting  a 
man  from  either  side ;  it  therefore  got  out  of  the  difficulty 
by  resorting  to  the  rule  of  seniority.  That  is  how 
Thuillier  became  sub-director.  Mademoiselle  Thuillier, 
knowing  that  her  brother  abhorred  reading,  and  could 
substitute  no  business  for  the  bustle  of  a  public  office, 
had  wisely  resolved  to  plunge  him  into  the  cares  of 
property,  into  the  culture  of  a  garden,  in  short,  into  all 
the  infinitely  petty  concerns  and  neighborhood  intrigues 
which  make  up  the  life  of  the  bourgeoisie. 

The  transplanting  of  the  Thuillier  household  from  the 
rue  d'Argenteuil  to  the  rue  Saint-Dominique-d'Enfer, 
the  business  of  making  the  purchase,  of  finding  a  suitable 
porter,  and  then  of  obtaining  tenants  occupied  Thuillier 
from  1831  to  1832.  When  the  phenomenon  of  the  change 
was  accomplished,  and  the  sister  saw  that  Jerome  had 
borne  it  fairly  well,  she  found  him  other  cares  and  occu- 


14  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

pations  (about  which  we  shall  hear  later),  all  based  upon 
the  character  of  the  man  himself,  as  to  which  it  will  now 
be  useful  to  give  information. 

Though  the  son  of  a  ministerial  porter,  Thuillier  was 
what  is  called  a  fine  man,  slender  in  figure,  above  middle 
height,  and  possessing  a  face  that  was  rather  agreeable 
if  wearing  his  spectacles,  but  frightful  without  them; 
which  is  frequently  the  case  with  near-sighted  persons; 
for  the  habit  of  looking  through  glasses  had  covered  the 
pupils  of  his  eyes  with  a  sort  of  film. 

Between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  thirty,  young 
Thuillier  had  much  success  among  women,  in  a  sphere 
which  began  with  the  lesser  bourgeoisie  and  ended  in 
that  of  the  heads  of  departments.  Under  the  Empire, 
war  left  Parisian  society  rather  denuded  of  men  of 
energy,  who  were  mostly  on  the  battlefield ;  and  perhaps, 
as  a  great  physician  has  suggested,  this  may  account 
for  the  flabbiness  of  the  generation  which  occupies  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Thuillier,  forced  to  make  himself  noticeable  by  other 
charms  than  those  of  mind,  learned  to  dance  and  to  waltz 
in  a  way  to  be  cited;  he  was  called  "that  handsome 
Thuillier;"  he  played  billiards  to  perfection;  he  knew 
how  to  cut  out  likenesses  in  black  paper,  and  his  friend 
Colleville  coached  him  so  well  that  he  was  able  to  sing 
all  the  ballads  of  the  day.  These  various  small  accom- 
plishments resulted  in  that  appearance  of  success  which 
deceives  youth  and  befogs  it  about  the  future.  Made- 
moiselle Thuillier,  from  1806  to  1814,  believed  in  her 
brother  as  Mademoiselle  d'Orleaus  believed  in  Louis- 
Philippe.  She  was  proud  of  Jerome;  she  expected  to  see 
him  the  director-general  of  his  department  of  the  min- 
istry, thanks  to  his  successes  in  certain  salons,  where, 
undoubtedly,  he  would  never  have  been  admitted  but  for 
the  circumstances  which  made  society  under  the  Empire 
a  medley. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  15 

But  the  successes  of  "that  handsome  Thuillier"  were 
usually  of  short  duration ;  women  did  not  care  to  keep 
his  devotion  any  more  than  he  desired  to  make  his  devo- 
tion eternal.  He  was  really  an  unwilling  Don  Juan;  the 
career  of  a  "beau"  wearied  him  to  the  point  of  aging 
him;  his  face,  covered  with  lines  like  that  of  an  old 
coquette,  looked  a  dozen  years  older  than  the  registers 
made  him.  There  remained  to  him  of  all  his  successes 
in  gallantry,  a  habit  of  looking  at  himself  in  mirrors,  of 
buttoning  his  coat  to  define  his  waist,  and  of  posing 
in  various  dancing  attitudes;  all  of  which  prolonged, 
beyond  the  period  of  enjoying  his  advantages,  the  sort 
of  lease  that  he  held  on  his  cognomen,  "that  handsome 
Thuillier. " 

The  truth  of  1806  has,  however,  become  a  fable,  in 
1826.  He  retains  a  few  vestiges  of  the  former  costume 
of  the  beaux  of  the  Empire,  which  are  not  unbecoming 
to  the  dignity  of  a  former  sub-director.  He  still  wears 
the  white  cravat  with  innumerable  folds,  wherein  his 
chin  is  buried,  and  the  coquettish  bow,  formerly  tied  by 
the  hands  of  beauty,  the  two  ends  of  which  threaten 
danger  to  the  passers  to  right  and  left.  He  follows  the 
fashions  of  former  days,  adapting  them  to  his  present 
needs ;  he  tips  his  hat  on  the  back  of  his  head,  and  wears 
shoes  and  thread  stockings  in  summer;  his  long-tailed 
coats  remind  one  of  the  well-known  "surtouts  "  of  the 
Empire;  he  has  not  yet  abandoned  his  frilled  shirts  and 
his  white  waistcoats;  he  still  plays  with  his  Empire 
switch,  and  holds  himself  so  erect  that  his  back  bends 
in.  No  one,  seeing  Thuillier  promenading  on  the  boule- 
vards, would  take  him  for  the  son  of  a  man  who  cooked 
the  breakfasts  of  the  clerks  at  a  ministry  and  wore  the 
livery  of  Louis  XVI. ;  he  resembles  an  imperial  diploma- 
tist or  a  sub-prefect.  Now,  not  only  did  Mademoiselle 
Thuillier  very  innocently  work  upon  her  brother's  weak 
spot  by  encouraging   in  him  an  excessive  care  of  his 


16  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

person,  which,  in  her,  was  simply  a  continuation  of  her 
worship,  but  she  also  provided  him  with  family  joys, 
by  transplanting  to  their  midst  a  household  which  had 
hitherto  been  quasi-collateral  to  them. 

It  was  that  of  Monsieur  Colleville,  an  intimate  friend 
of  Thuillier.  But  before  we  proceed  to  describe  Pylades 
let  us  finish  with  Orestes,  and  explain  why  Thuillier  — 
that  handsome  Thuillier  —  was  left  without  a  family  of 
his  own  —  for  the  family,  be  it  said,  is  non-existent 
without  children.  Herein  appears  one  of  those  deep 
mysteries  which  lie  buried  in  the  arcana  of  private  life, 
a  few  shreds  of  which  rise  to  the  surface  at  moments 
when  the  pain  of  a  concealed  situation  grows  poignant. 
This  concerns  the  life  of  Madame  and  Mademoiselle 
Thuillier;  so  far,  we  have  seen  only  the  life  (and  we 
may  call  it  the  public  life  )  of  Jerome  Thuillier. 

Marie- Jeanne-Brigitte  Thuillier,  four  years  older  than 
her  brother,  had  been  utterly  sacrificed  to  him;  it  was 
easier  to  give  a  career  to  the  one  than  a  dot  to  the  other. 
Misfortune  to  some  natures  is  a  pharos,  which  illumines 
to  their  eyes  the  dark  low  corners  of  social  existence. 
Superior  to  her  brother  both  in  mind  and  energy,  Brigitte 
had  one  of  those  natures  which,  under  the  hammer  of 
persecution,  gather  themselves  together,  become  compact 
and  powerfully  resistant,  not  to  say  inflexible.  Jealous 
of  her  independence,  she  kept  aloof  from  the  life  of  the 
household ;  choosing  to  make  herself  the  sole  arbiter  of 
her  own  fate.  At  fourteen  years  of  age,  she  went  to  live 
alone  in  a  garret,  not  far  from  the  ministry  of  finance, 
which  was  then  in  the  rue  Vivien ne,  and  also  not  far 
from  the  Bank  of  France,  then,  and  now,  in  the  rue  de 
la  Vrilliere.  There  she  bravely  gave  herself  up  to  a 
form  of  industry  little  known  and  the  perquisite  of  a  few 
persons,  which  she  obtained,  thanks  to  the  patrons  of  her 
father.  It  consisted  in  making  bags  to  hold  coin  for  the 
Bank,  the  Treasury,  and  great  financial  houses.     At  the 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  17 

end  of  three  years  the  employed  two  workwomen.  By 
investing  her  savings  on  the  Grand-Livre,  she  found 
herself,  in  1814,  the  mistress  of  three  thousand  six  hun- 
dred francs  a  year,  earned  in  fifteen  years.  As  she  spent 
little,  and  dined  with  her  father  as  long  as  he  lived,  and, 
as  government  securities  were  very  low  during  the  last 
convulsions  of  the  Empire,  this  result,  which  seems  at 
first  sight  exaggerated,  explains  itself. 

On  the  death  of  their  father,  Brigitte  and  Jerome,  the 
former  being  twenty-seven,  the  latter  twenty-three,  united 
their  existence.  Brother  and  sister  were  bound  together 
by  an  extreme  affection.  If  Jerome,  then  at  the  height 
of  his  successes,  was  pinched  for  money,  his  sister, 
clothed  in  serge,  and  her  fingers  roughened  by  the  coarse 
thread  with  which  she  sewed  her  bags,  would  give  him  a 
few  louis.  In  Brigitte' s  eyes  Jerome  was  the  handsomest 
and  most  charming  man  in  the  whole  French  Empire. 
To  keep  house  for  this  cherished  brother,  to  be  initiated 
into  the  secrets  of  Lindor  and  Don  Juan,  to  be  his  hand- 
maiden, his  spaniel,  was  Brigitte' s  dream.  She  immo- 
lated herself  lovingly  to  an  idol  whose  selfishness,  always 
great,  was  enormously  increased  by  her  self-sacrifice. 
She  sold  her  business  to  her  forewoman  for  fifteen  thou- 
sand francs  and  came  to  live  with  Thuillier  in  the  rue 
d'Argenteuil,  where  she  made  herself  the  mother,  pro- 
tectress, and  servant  of  this  spoiled  child  of  women. 
Brigitte,  with  the  natural  caution  of  a  girl  who  owed 
everything  to  her  own  discretion  and  her  own  labor,  con- 
cealed the  amount  of  her  savings  from  Jerome,  —  fear- 
ing, no  doubt,  the  extravagance  of  a  man  of  gallantry. 
She  merely  paid  a  quota  of  six  hundred  francs  a  year 
to  the  expenses  of  the  household,  and  this,  with  her 
brother's  eighteen  hundred,  enabled  her  to  make  both 
ends  meet  at  the  end  of  the  year. 

From  the  first  days  of  their  coming  together,  Thuillier 
listened  to  his  sister  as  to  an  oracle ;  he  consulted  her  in 

2 


18  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

his  trifling  affairs,  kept  none  of  his  secrets  from  her,  and 
thus  made  her  taste  the  fruit  of  despotism  which  was,  in 
truth,  the  one  little  sin  of  her  nature.  But  the  sister  had 
sacrificed  everything  to  the  brother;  she  had  staked  her 
all  upon  his  heart;  she  lived  by  him  only.  Brigitte's 
ascendency  over  Jerome  was  singularly  proved  by  the 
marriage  which  she  procured  for  him  about  the  year  1814. 

Seeing  the  tendency  to  enforced  reduction  which  the 
new-comers  to  power  under  the  Restoration  were  begin- 
ning#to  bring  about  in  the  government  offices,  and  par- 
ticularly since  the  return  of  the  old  society  which  sought 
to  ride  over  the  bourgeoisie,  Brigitte  understood,  far 
better  than  her  brother  could  explain  to  her,  the  social 
crisis  which  presently  extinguished  their  common  hopes. 
No  more  successes  for  that  handsome  Thuillier  in  the 
salons  of  the  nobles  who  now  succeeded  the  plebeians  of 
the  Empire! 

Thuillier  was  not  enough  of  a  person  to  take  up  a 
politic  opinion  and  choose  a  party;  he  felt,  as  his  sister 
did  for  him,  the  necessity  of  profiting  by  the  remains  of 
his  youth  to  make  a  settlement.  In  such  a  situation,  a 
sister  as  jealous  of  her  power  as  Brigitte  naturally  would, 
and  ought,  to  marry  her  brother,  to  suit  herself  as  well  as 
to  suit  him ;  for  she  alone  could  make  him  really  happy, 
Madame  Thuillier  being  only  an  indispensable  accessory 
to  the  obtaining  of  two  or  three  children.  If  Brigitte 
did  not  have  an  intellect  quite  the  equal  of  her  will,  at 
least  she  had  the  instinct  of  her  despotism;  without, 
it  is  true,  education,  she  marched  straight  before  her, 
with  the  headstrong  determination  of  a  nature  accus- 
tomed to  succeed.  She  had  the  genius  of  housekeeping, 
a  faculty  for  economy,  a  thorough  understanding  of  how 
to  live,  and  a  love  for  work.  She  saw  plainly  that  she 
could  never  succeed  in  marrying  Jerome  into  a  sphere 
above  their  own,  where  parents  might  inquire  into  their 
domestic  life  and  feel  uneasy  at  finding  a  mistress  already 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  19 

reigning  in  the  home.  She  therefore  sought  in  a  lower 
grade  for  persons  to  dazzle,  and  found,  almost  beside 
her,  a  suitable  match. 

The  oldest  usher  at  the  Bank,  a  man  named  Lemprun, 
had  an  only  daughter,  called  Celeste.  Mademoiselle 
Celeste  Lemprun  would  inherit  the  fortune  of  her  mother, 
the  only  daughter  of  a  rich  farmer.  This  fortune  con- 
sisted of  some  acres  of  land  in  the  environs  of  Paris, 
which  the  old  father  still  worked;  besides  this,  she 
would  have  the  property  of  Lemprun  himself,  a  man  who 
had  left  the  firms  of  Thelusson  and  of  Keller  to  enter  the 
service  of  the  Bank  of  France.  Lemprun,  now  the  head 
of  that  service,  enjoyed  the  respect  and  consideration  of 
the  governors  and  auditors. 

The  Bank  council,  on  hearing  of  the  probable  marriage 
of  Celeste  to  an  honorable  employe  at  the  ministry  of 
finance,  promised  a  wedding  present  of  six  thousand 
francs.  This  gift,  added  to  twelve  thousand  given  by 
Pere  Lemprun,  and  twelve  thousand  more  from  the 
maternal  grandfather,  Sieur  Galard,  market-gardener 
at  Auteuil,  brought  up  the  dowry  to  thirty  thousand 
francs.  Old  Galard  and  Monsieur  and  Madame  Lemprun 
were  delighted  with  the  marriage.  Lemprun  himself 
knew  Mademoiselle  Thuillier,  and  considered  her  one  of 
the  worthiest  and  most  conscientious  women  in  Paris. 
Brigitte  then,  for  the  first  time,  allowed  her  investments 
on  the  Grand-Livre  to  shine  forth,  assuring  Lemprun  that 
she  should  never  marry;  consequently,  neither  he  nor 
his  wife,  persons  devoted  to  the  main  chance,  would  ever 
allow  themselves  to  find  fault  with  Brigitte.  Above  all, 
they  were  greatly  struck  by  the  splendid  prospects  of 
that  handsome  Thuillier,  and  the  marriage  took  place,  as 
the  conventional  saying  is,  to  the  general  satisfaction. 

The  governor  of  the  Bank  and  the  secretary  were  the 
bride's  witnesses;  Monsieur  de  la  Billardiere,  director 
of  Thuillier's  department,  and  Monsieur  Rabourdin,  head 


20  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

of  tbe  office,  being  those  of  the  groom.  Six  days  after 
the  marriage  old  Lemprun  was  the  victim  of  a  daring 
robbery,  which  made  a  great  noise  in  the  newspapers  of 
the  day,  though  it  was  quickly  forgotten  during  the 
events  of  1815.  The  guilty  parties  having  escaped 
detection,  Lemprun  wished  to  make  up  the  loss ;  but  the 
Bank  agreed  to  carry  the  deficit  to  its  profit  and  loss 
account;  nevertheless,  the  poor  old  man  actually  died  of 
the  grief  this  affair  had  caused  him.  He  regarded  it  as 
an  attack  upon  his  aged  honor. 

Madame  Lemprun  then  resigned  all  her  property  to  her 
daughter,  Madame  Thuillier,  and  went  to  live  with  her 
father  at  Auteuil  until  he  died  from  an  accident  in  1817. 
Alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  having  to  manage  or  lease 
the  market-garden  and  the  farm  of  her  father,  Madame 
Lemprun  entreated  Brigitte,  whose  honesty  and  capacity 
astonished  her,  to  wind  up  old  Galard's  affairs,  and  to 
settle  the  property  in  such  a  way  that  her  daughter  should 
take  possession  of  everything,  securing  to  her  mother 
fifteen  hundred  francs  a  year  and  the  house  at  Auteuil. 
The  landed  property  of  the  old  farmer  was  sold  in  lots, 
and  brought  in  thirty  thousand  francs.  Lemprun' s  estate 
had  given  as  much  more,  so  that  Madame  Thuillier's 
fortune,  including  her  dot,  amounted  in  1818  to  ninety 
thousand  francs.  Joining  the  revenue  of  this  property 
to  that  of  the  brother  and  sister,  the  Thuillier  household 
had  an  income,  in  1818,  amounting  to  eleven  thousand 
francs,  managed  by  Brigitte  alone  on  her  sole  responsi- 
bility. It  is  necessary  to  begin  by  stating  this  financial 
position,  not  only  to  prevent  objections  but  to  rid  the 
drama  of  difficulties. 

Brigitte  began,  from  the  first,  by  allowing  her  brother 
five  hundred  francs  a  month,  and  by  sailing  the  house- 
hold boat  at  the  rate  of  five  thousand  francs  a  year.  She 
granted  to  her  sister-in-law  fifty  francs  a  month,  explain- 
ing to  her  carefully  that  she  herself  was  satisfied  with 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  21 

forty.  To  strengthen  her  despotism  by  the  power  of 
money,  Brigitte  laid  by  the  surplus  of  her  own  funds. 
She  made,  so  it  was  said  in  business  offices,  usurious 
loans  by  means  of  her  brother,  who  appeared  as  a  money- 
lender. If,  between  the  years  1813  and  1830,  Brigitte 
had  capitalized  sixty  thousand  francs,  that  sum  can  be 
explained  by  the  rise  in  the  Funds,  and  there  is  no  need 
to  have  recourse  to  accusations  more  or  less  well  founded, 
which  have  nothing  to  do  with  our  present  history. 

From  the  first  days  of  the  marriage,  Brigitte  subdued 
the  unfortunate  Madame  Thuillier  with  a  touch  of  the 
spur  and  a  jerk  of  the  bit,  both  of  which  she  made  her 
feel  severely.  A  further  display  of  tyranny  was  use- 
less; the  victim  resigned  herself  at  once.  Celeste, 
thoroughly  understood  by  Brigitte,  a  girl  without  mind 
or  education,  accustomed  to  a  sedentary  life  and  a  tran- 
quil atmosphere,  was  extremely  gentle  by  nature;  she 
was  pious  in  the  fullest  acceptation  of  the  word;  she 
would  willingly  have  expiated  by  the  hardest  punish- 
ments the  involuntary  wrong  of  giving  pain  to  her 
neighbor.  She  was  utterly  ignorant  of  life;  accustomed 
to  be  waited  on  by  her  mother,  who  did  the  whole  service 
of  the  house,  for  Celeste  was  unable  to  make  much  exer- 
tion, owing  to  a  lymphatic  constitution  which  the  least 
toil  wearied.  She  was  truly  a  daughter  of  the  people 
of  Paris,  where  children,  seldom  handsome,  and  of  no 
vigor,  the  product  of  poverty  and  toil,  of  homes  without 
fresh  air,  without  freedom  of  action,  without  any  of  the 
conveniences  of  life,  meet  us  at  every  turn. 

At  the  time  of  the  marriage,  Celeste  was  seen  to  be  a 
little  woman,  fair  and  faded  almost  to  sickliness,  fat, 
slow,  and  silly  in  the  countenance.  N  Her  forehead, 
much  too  large  and  too  prominent,  suggested  water 
on  the  brain,  and  beneath  that  waxen  cupola  her  face, 
noticeably  too  small  and  ending  in  a  point  like  the  nose 
of  a  mouse,  made  some  people  fear  she  would  become, 


22  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

sooner  or  later,  imbecile.  Her  eyes,  which  were  light 
blue,  and  her  lips,  always  fixed  in  a  smile,  did  not  con- 
tradict that  idea.  On  the  solemn  occasion  of  her  mar- 
riage she  had  the  manner,  air,  and  attitude  of  a  person 
condemned  to  death,  whose  only  desire  is  that  it  might 
all  be  over  speedily. 

"She  is  rather  round,"  said  Colleville  to  Thuillier. 

Brigitte  was  just  the  knife  to  cut  into  such  a  nature, 
to  which  her  own  formed  the  strongest  contrast.  Made- 
moiselle Thuillier  was  remarkable  for  her  regular  and  cor- 
rect beauty,  but  a  beauty  injured  by  toil  which,  from  her 
very  childhood,  had  bent  her  down  to  painful,  thankless 
tasks,  and  by  the  secret  privations  she  imposed  upon  her- 
self in  order  to  amass  her  little  property.  Her  complex- 
ion, early  discolored,  had  something  the  tint  of  steel.  Her 
brown  eyes  were  framed  in  brown ;  on  the  upper  lip  was 
a  brown  floss  like  a  sort  of  smoke.  Her  lips  were  thin, 
and  her  imperious  forehead  was  surmounted  by  hair  once 
black,  now  turning  to  chinchilla.  She  held  herself  as 
straight  as  the  fairest  beauty;  but  all  things  else  about 
her  showed  the  hardness  of  her  life,  the  deadening  of  her 
natural  fire,  the  cost  of  what  she  was ! 

To  Brigitte,  Celeste  was  simply  a  fortune  to  lay  hold  of, 
a  future  mother  to  rule,  one  more  subject  in  her  empire. 
She  soon  reproached  her  for  being  weak,  a  constant  word 
in  her  vocabulary,  and  the  jealous  old  maid,  who  would 
strongly  have  resented  any  signs  of  activity  in  her  sister- 
in-law,  now  took  a  savage  pleasure  in  prodding  the  lan- 
guid inertness  of  the  feeble  creature.  Celeste,  ashamed 
to  see  her  sister-in-law  displaying  such  energy  in  house- 
hold work,  endeavored  to  help  her,  and  fell  ill  in  conse- 
quence. Instantly,  Brigitte  was  devoted  to  her,  nursed 
her  like  a  beloved  sister,  and  would  say,  in  presence  of 
Thuillier:  "You  haven't  any  strength,  my  child;  you 
must  never  do  anything  again."  She  showed  up  Celeste's 
incapacity    by   that   display    of    sympathy    with   which 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  23 

strength,  seeming  to  pity  weakness,  finds  means  to  boast 
of  its  own  powers. 

But,  as  all  despotic  natures  liking  to  exercise  their 
strength  are  full  of  tenderness  for  physical  sufferings, 
Brigitte  took  such  real  care  of  her  sister-in-law  as  to 
satisfy  Celeste's  mother  when  she  came  to  see  her  daugh- 
ter. After  Madame  Thuillier  recovered,  however,  she 
called  her,  in  Celeste's  hearing,  "a  helpless  creature, 
good  for  nothing!"  which  sent  the  poor  thing  crying  to 
her  room.  When  Thuillier  found  her  there,  drying  her 
eyes,  he  excused  his  sister,  saying :  — 

"She  is  an  excellent  woman,  but  rather  hasty;  she 
loves  you  in  her  own  way;  she  behaves  just  so  with 
me." 

Celeste,  remembering  the  maternal  care  of  her  sister- 
in-law  during  her  illness,  forgave  the  wound.  Brigitte 
always  treated  her  brother  as  the  king  of  the  family ;  she 
exalted  him  to  Celeste,  and  made  him  out  an  autocrat,  a 
Ladislas,  an  infallible  pope.  Madame  Thuillier  having 
lost  her  father  and  grandfather,  and  being  well-nigh 
deserted  by  her  mother,  who  came  to  see  her  on  Thurs- 
days only  (she  herself  spending  Sundays  at  Auteuil  in 
summer),  had  no  one  left  to  love  except  her  husband, 
and  she  did  love  him,  —  in  the  first  place,  because  he  was 
her  husband,  and  secondly,  because  he  still  remained  to 
her  "that  handsome  Thuillier."  Besides,  he  sometimes 
treated  her  like  a  wife,  and  all  these  reasons  together 
made  her  adore  him.  He  seemed  to  her  all  the  more  per- 
fect because  he  often  took  up  her  defence  and  scolded 
his  sister,  not  from  any  real  interest  in  his  wife,  but 
for  pure  selfishness,  and  in  order  to  have  peace  in  the 
household  during  the  very  few  moments  that  he  stayed 
there. 

In  fact,  that  handsome  Thuillier  was  never  at  home 
except  at  dinner,  after  which  meal  he  went  out,  return- 
ing very  late  at  night.     He  went  to  balls  and  other  social 


24  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

festivities  by  himself,  precisely  as  if  he  were  still  a 
bachelor.  Thus  the  two  women  were  always  alone  to- 
gether. Celeste  insensibly  fell  into  a  passive  attitude, 
and  became  what  Brigitte  wanted  her,  —  a  helot.  The 
Queen  Elizabeth  of  the  household  then  passed  from  des- 
potism to.  a  sort  of  pity  for  the  poor  victim  who  was 
always  sacrificed.  She  ended  by  softening  her  haughty 
ways,  her  cutting  speech,  her  contemptuous  tones,  as 
soon  as  she  was  certain  that  her  sister-in-law  was  com- 
pletely under  the  yoke.  When  she  saw  the  wounds  it 
made  on  the  neck  of  her  victim,  she  took  care  of  her 
as  a  thing  of  her  own,  and  Celeste  entered  upon  happier 
days.  Comparing  the  end  with  the  beginning,  she  even 
felt  a  sort  of  love  for  her  torturer.  To  gain  some  power 
of  self-defence,  to  become  something  less  a  cipher  in  the 
household,  supported,  unknown  to  herself,  by  her  own 
means,  the  poor  helot  had  but  a  single  chance,  and  that 
chance  never  came  to  her. 

Celeste  had  no  child.  This  barrenness,  which,  from 
month  to  month,  brought  floods  of  tears  from  her  eyes, 
was  long  the  cause  of  Brigitte's  scorn;  she  reproached 
the  poor  woman  bitterly  for  being  fit  for  nothing,  not  even 
to  bear  children.  The  old  maid,  who  had  longed  to  love 
her  brother's  child  as  if  it  were  her  own,  was  unable,  for 
years,  to  reconcile  herself  to  this  irremediable  sterility. 

At  the  time  when  our  history  begins,  namely,  in  1840, 
Celeste,  then  forty-six  years  old,  had  ceased  to  weep; 
she  now  had  the  certainty  of  never  being  a  mother.  And 
here  is  a  strange  thing.  After  twenty-five  years  of  this 
life,  in  which  victory  had  ended  by  first  dulling  and  then 
breaking  its  own  knife,  Brigitte  loved  Celeste  as  much 
as  Celeste  loved  Brigitte.  Time,  ease,  and  the  perpetual 
rubbing  of  domestic  life,  had  worn  off  the  angles  and 
smoothed  the  asperities;  Celeste's  resignation  and  lamb- 
like gentleness  had  brought,  at  last,  a  serene  and  peace- 
ful autumn.     The  two  women  were  still  further  united 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  25 

by  the  one  sentiment  that  lay  within  them,  namely,  their 
adoration  for  the  lucky  and  selfish  Thuillier. 

Moreover,  these  two  women,  both  childless,  had  each, 
like  all  women  who  have  vainly  desired  children,  fallen 
in  love  with  a  child.  This  fictitious  motherhood,  equal 
in  strength  to  a  real  motherhood,  needs  an  explanation 
which  will  carry  us  to  the  very  heart  of  our  drama,  and 
will  show  the  reason  of  the  new  occupation  which  Made- 
moiselle Thuillier  provided  for  her  brother. 


26  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


m. 

COLLEVILLE. 

Thuillter  had  entered  the  ministry  of  finance  as 
supernumerary  at  the  same  time  as  Colleville,  who  has 
been  mentioned  already  as  his  intimate  friend.  In 
opposition  to  the  well-regulated,  gloomy  household  of 
Thuillier,  social  nature  had  provided  that  of  Colleville; 
and  if  it  is  impossible  not  to  remark  that  this  fortuitous 
contrast  was  scarcely  moral,  we  must  add  that,  before 
deciding  that  point,  it  would  be  well  to  wait  for  the  end 
of  this  drama,  unfortunately  too  true,  for  which  the 
present  historian  is  not  responsible. 

Colleville  was  the  only  son  of  a  talented  musician, 
formerly  first  violin  at  the  Opera  under  Francoeur  and 
Rebel,  who  related,  at  least  six  times  a  month  during  his 
lifetime,  anecdotes  concerning  the  representations  of  the 
"Village  Seer;"  and  mimicked  Jean-Jacques  Rousseau, 
taking  him  off  to  perfection.  Colleville  and  Thuillier 
were  inseparable  friends;  they  had  no  secrets  from  eacn 
other,  and  their  friendship,  begun  at  fifteen  years  of  age, 
had  never  known  a  cloud  up  to  the  year  1839.  The 
former  was  one  of  those  employes  who  are  called,  in  the 
government  offices,  pluralists.  These  clerks  are  remark- 
able for  their  industry.  Colleville,  a  good  musician, 
owed  to  the  name  and  influence  of  his  father  a  situation 
as  first  clarionet  at  the  Opera-Comique,  and  so  long  as 
he  was  a  bachelor,  Colleville,  who  was  rather  richer  than 
Thuillier,  shared  his  means  with  his  friend.  But,  unlike 
Thuillier,  Colleville  married  for  love  a  Mademoiselle 
Flavie,   the  natural  daughter  of  a  celebrated   danseuse 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  27 

at  the  Opera;  her  reputed  father  being  a  certain  du 
Bourguier,  one  of  the  richest  contractors  of  the  day.  In 
style  and  origin,  Flavie  was  apparently  destined  for  a 
melancholy  career,  when  Colleville,  often  sent  to  her 
mother's  apartments,  fell  in  love  with  her  and  married 
her.  Prince  Galathionne,  who  at  that  time  was  "pro- 
tecting "  the  danseuse,  then  approaching  the  end  of  her 
brilliant  career,  gave  Flavie  a  dot  of  twenty  thousand 
francs,  to  which  her  mother  added  a  magnificent  trous- 
seau. Other  friends  and  opera-comrades  sent  jewels  and 
silver-ware,  so  that  the  Colleville  household  was  far 
richer  in  superfluities  than  in  capital.  Flavie,  brought 
up  in  opulence,  began  her  married  life  in  a  charming 
apartment,  furnished  by  her  mother's  upholsterer,  where 
the  young  wife,  who  was  full  of  taste  for  art  and  for 
artists,  and  possessed  a  certain  elegance,  ruled,  a  queen. 

Madame  Colleville  was  pretty  and  piquant,  clever, 
gay,  and  graceful;  to  express  her  in  one  sentence, — 
a  charming  creature.  Her  mother,  the  danseuse,  now 
forty-three  years  old,  retired  from  the  stage  and  went  to 
live  in  the  country,  —  thus  depriving  her  daughter  of 
the  resources  derived  from  her  wasteful  extravagance. 
Madame  Colleville  kept  a  very  agreeable  but  extremely 
free  and  easy  household.  From  1816  to  1826  she  had  five 
children.  Colleville,  a  musician  in  the  evening,  kept  the 
books  of  a  merchant  from  seven  to^nine  in  the  morning, 
and  by  ten  o'clock  he  was  at  his  ministry.  Thus,  by 
blowing  into  a  bit  of  wood  by  night,  and  writing  double- 
entry  accounts  in  the  early  morning,  he  managed  to  eke 
out  his  earnings  to  seven  or  eight  thousand  francs  a 
year. 

Madame  Colleville  played  the  part  of  a  comme  il  faut 
woman;  she  received  on  Wednesdays,  gave  a  concert 
once  a  month  and  a  dinner  every  fortnight.  She  never 
saw  Colleville  except  at  dinner  and  at  night,  when  he 
returned  about  twelve  o'clock,  at  which  hour  she  was  fre- 


28  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

quently  not  at  home  herself.  She  went  to  the  theatres, 
where  boxes  were  sometimes  given  to  her;  and  she  would 
send  word  to  Colleville  to  come  and  fetcli  her  from  such 
or  such  a  house,  where  she  was  supping  and  dancing. 
At  her  own  house,  guests  found  excellent  cheer,  and  her 
society,  though  rather  mixed,  was  very  amusing;  she 
received  and  welcomed  actresses,  artists,  men  of  letters, 
and  a  few  rich  men.  Madame  Colleville's  elegance  was 
on  a  par  with  that  of  Tullia,  the  leading  prima-clonna, 
with  whom  she  was  intimate;  but  though  the  Collevilles 
encroached  on  their  capital  and  were  often  in  difficulty 
by  the  end  of  the  month,  Flavie  was  never  in  debt. 

Colleville  was  very  happy;  he  still  loved  his  wife,  and 
he  made  himself  her  best  friend.  Always  received  by 
her  with  affectionate  smiles  and  sympathetic  pleasure, 
he  yielded  readily  to  the  irresistible  grace  of  her 
manners.  The  vehement  activity  with  which  he  pursued 
his  three  avocations  was  a  part  of  his  natural  character 
and  temperament.  He  was  a  fine  stout  man,  ruddy, 
jovial,  extravagant,  and  full  of  ideas.  In  ten  years 
there  was  never  a  quarrel  in  his  household.  Among 
business  men  he  was  looked  upon,  in  common  with  all 
artists,  as  a  scatter-brained  fellow;  and  superficial  per- 
sons thought  that  the  constant  hurry  of  this  hard  worker 
was  only  the  restless  going  and  coming  of  a  busybody. 

Colleville  had  the  sense  to  seem  stupid;  he  boasted  of 
his  family  happiness,  and  gave  himself  unheard-of 
trouble  in  making  anagrams,  in  order  at  times  to  seem 
absorbed  in  that  passion.  The  government  clerks  of  his 
division  at  the  ministry,  the  office  directors,  and  even 
the  heads  of  divisions  came  to  his  concerts;  now  and 
then  he  quietly  bestowed  upon  them  opera  tickets,  when 
he  needed  some  extra  indulgence  on  account  of  his  fre- 
quent absence.  Rehearsals  took  half  the  time  that  he 
ought  to  have  been  at  his  desk;  but  the  musical  knowl- 
edge his  father  had  bequeathed  to  him  was  sufficiently 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  29 

genuine  and  well-grounded  to  excuse  him  from  all  but 
final  rehearsals.  Thanks  to  Madame  Colleville's  inti- 
macies, both  the  theatre  and  the  ministry  lent  themselves 
kindly  to  the  needs  of  this  industrious  pluralist,  who, 
moreover,  was  bringing  up,  with  great  care,  a  youth, 
warmly  recommended  to  him  by  his  wife,  a  future  great 
musician,  who  sometimes  took  his  place  in  the  orchestra 
with  a  promise  of  eventually  succeeding  him.  In  fact, 
about  the  year  1827  this  young  man  became  first  clari- 
onet when  Colleville  resigned  his  position. 

The  usual  comment  on  Flavie  was,  "That  little  slip 
of  a  coquette,  Madame  Colleville."  The  eldest  of  the 
Colleville  children,  born  in  1816,  was  the  living  image 
of  Colleville  himself.  In  1818,  Madame  Colleville  held 
the  cavalry  in  high  estimation,  above  even  art;  and  she 
distinguished  more  particularly  a  sub-lieutenant  in  the 
dragoons  of  Saint-Chamans,  the  young  and  rich  Charles 
de  Gondreville,  who  afterwards  died  in  the  Spanish  cam- 
paign. By  that  time  Flavie  had  had  a  second  son,  whom 
she  henceforth  dedicated  to  a  military  career.  In  1820 
she  considered  banking  the  nursing  mother  of  trade,  the 
supporter  of  Nations,  and  she  made  the  great  Keller, 
that  famous  banker  and  orator,  her  idol.  She  then  had 
another  son,  whom  she  named  Francois,  revolving  to 
make  him  a  merchant,  —  feeling  sure  that  Keller's  influ- 
ence would  never  fail  him.  About  the  close  of  the  year 
1820,  Thuillier,  the  intimate  friend  of  Monsieur  and 
Madame  Colleville,  felt  the  need  of  pouring  his  sorrows 
into  the  bosom  of  this  excellent  woman,  and  to  her  he 
related  his  conjugal  miseries.  For  six  years  he  had 
longed  to  have  children,  but  God  did  not  bless  him; 
although  that  poor  Madame  Thuillier  had  made  novenas, 
and  had  even  gone,  uselessly,  to  Notre-Dame  de  Liesse! 
He  depicted  Celeste  in  various  lights,  which  brought  the 
words  "Poor  Thuillier!"  from  Flavie's  lips.  She  her- 
self was  rather  sad,  having  at  the  moment  no  dominant 


30  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

opinion.  She  poured  her  own  griefs  into  Thuillier's 
bosom.  The  great  Keller,  that  hero  of  the  Left,  was,  in 
reality,  extremely  petty;  she  had  learned  to  know  the 
other  side  of  public  fame,  the  follies  of  banking,  the 
emptiness  of  eloquence!  The  orator  only  spoke  for 
show;  to  her  he  had  behaved  extremely  ill.  Thuillier 
was  indignant.  "  None  but  stupid  fellows  know  how  to 
love,"  he  said;  "take  me!"  That  handsome  Thuillier 
was  henceforth  supposed  to  be  paying  court  to  Madame 
Colleville,  and  was  rated  as  one  of  her  attentives,  —  a 
word   in  vogue  during  the  Empire. 

"Ha!  you  are  after  my  wife,"  said  Colleville,  laughing. 
"Take  care;  she'll  leave  you  in  the  lurch,  like  all  the 
rest." 

A  rather  clever  speech,  by  which  Colleville  saved  his 
marital  dignity.  From  1820  to  1821,  Thuillier,  in  vir- 
tue of  his  title  as  friend  of  the  family,  helped  Colleville, 
who  had  formerly  helped  him;  so  much  so,  that  in  eigh- 
teen months  he  had  lent  nearly  ten  thousand  francs  to 
the  Colleville  establishment,  with  no  intention  of  ever 
claiming  them.  In  the  spring  of  1821,  Madame  Colle- 
ville gave  birth  to  a  charming  little  girl,  to  whom 
Monsieur  and  Madame  Thuillier  were  godfather  and 
godmother.  The  child  was  baptized  Celeste-Louise- 
Caroline-Brigitte;  Mademoiselle  Thuillier  wishing  that 
her  name  should  be  given  among  others  to  the  little 
angel.  The  name  of  Caroline  was  a  graceful  attention 
paid  to  Colleville.  Old  mother  Lemprun  assumed  the 
care  of  putting  the  baby  to  nurse  under  her  own  eyes  at 
Auteuil,  where  Celeste  and  her  sister-in-law  Brigitte, 
paid  it  regularly  a  semi-weekly  visit. 

As  soon  as  Madame  Colleville  recovered  she  said  to 
Thuillier  frankly,  in  a  very  serious  tone:  — 

"My  dear  friend,  if  we  are  all  to  remain  good  friends, 
you  must  be  our  friend  only.  Colleville  is  attached  to 
you;  well,  that's  enough  for  you  in  this  household." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  31 

"Explain  to  me,"  said  the  handsome Thuillier  to  Tullia 
after  this  remark,  "why  women  are  never  attached  to 
me.  I  am  not  the  Apollo  Belvidere,  but  for  all  that 
I'm  not  a  Vulcan;  I  am  passably  good-looking,  I  have 
sense,  I  am  faithful  —  " 

"Do   you   want   me   to   tell   you   the   truth?"    replied 
Tullia. 

"Yes,"  said  Thuillier. 

"Well,  though  we  can,  sometimes,  love  a  stupid 
fellow,  we  never  love  a  silly  one." 

Those  words  killed  Thuillier;  he  never  got  over  them; 
henceforth  he  was  a  prey  to  melancholy  and  accused  all 
women  of  caprice. 

The  secretary-general  of  the  ministry,  des  Lupeaulx, 
whose  influence  Madame  Colleville  thought  greater  than 
it  was,  and  of  whom  she  said,  later,  "That  was  one  of 
my  mistakes,"  became  for  a  time  the  great  man  of  the 
Colleville  salon;  but  as  Flavie  found  he  hud  no  power 
to  promote  Colleville  into  the  upper  division,  she  had 
the  good  sense  to  resent  des  Lupeaulx' s  attentions  to 
Madame  Rabourdin  (whom  she  called  a  minx),  to  whose 
house  she  had  never  been  invited,  and  who  had  twice 
had  the  impertinence  not  to  come  to  the  Colleville 
concerts. 

Madame  Colleville  was  deeply  affected  by  the  death  of 
young  Gondreville;  she  felt,  she  said,  the  finger  of  God. 
In  1824  she  turned  over  a  new  leaf,  talked  of  economy, 
stopped  her  receptions,  busied  herself  with  her  children, 
determined  to  become  a  good  mother  of  a  family;  no 
favorite  friend  was  seen  at  her  house.  She  went  to 
church,  reformed  her  dress,  wore  gray,  and  talked 
Catholicism,  mysticism,  and  so  forth.  All  this  pro- 
duced, in  1825,  another  little  son,  whom  she  named 
Theodore.  Soon  after,  in  1826,  Colleville  was  appointed 
sub-director  of  the  Clergeot  division,  and  later,  in  1828, 
collector  of  taxes  in  a  Paris  arrondissement.     He  also 


32  The  Leaser  Bourgeoisie. 

received  the  cross  of  the  Legion  of  honor,  to  enable  him 
to  put  his  daughter  at  the  royal  school  of  Saint-Denis. 
The  half-scholarship  obtained  by  Keller  for  the  eldest 
boy,  Charles,  was  transferred  to  the  second  in  1823, 
when  Charles  entered  the  school  of  Saint-Louis  on  a  full 
scholarship.  The  third  son,  taken  under  the  protection 
of  Madame  la  Dauphine,  was  provided  with  a  three- 
quarter  scholarship  in  the  Henri  IV.  school. 

In  1830  Colleville,  who  had  the  good  fortune  not  to 
lose  a  child,  was  obliged,  owing  to  his  well-known 
attachment  to  the  fallen  royal  family,  to  send  in  his 
resignation;  but  he  was  clever  enough  to  make  a  bargain 
for  it,  —  obtaining  in  exchange  a  pension  of  two  thousand 
four  hundred  francs,  based  on  his  period  of  service,  and 
ten  thousand  francs  indemnity  paid  by  his  successor;  he 
also  received  the  rank  of  officer  of  the  Legion  of  honor. 
Nevertheless,  he  found  himself  in  rather  a  cramped  con- 
dition when  Mademoiselle  Thuillier,  in  1832,  advised 
him  to  come  and  live  near  them;  pointing  out  to  him  the 
possibility  of  obtaining  some  position  in  the  mayor's 
office,  which,  in  fact,  he  did  obtain  a  few  weeks  later, 
at  a  salary  of  three  thousand  francs.  Thus  Thuillier 
and  Colleville  were  destined  to  end  their  days  together. 
In  1833  Madame  Colleville,  then  thirty-five  years  old, 
settled  herself  in  the  rue  d'Enfer,  at  the  corner  of  the 
rue  des  Deux-]£glises  with  Celeste  and  little  Theodore, 
the  other  boys  being  at  their  several  schools.  Colleville 
was  equidistant  between  the  mayor's  office  and  the  rue 
Saint-Dominique  d'Enfer.  Thus  the  household,  after  a 
brilliant,  gay,  headlong,  reformed,  and  calmed  existence, 
subsided  finally  into  bourgeois  obscurity  with  five  thou- 
sand four  hundred  francs  a  year  for  its  3ole  dependence. 

Celeste  was  by  this  time  twelve  years  of  age,  and  she 
promised  to  be  pretty.  She  needed  masters,  and  her 
education  ought  to  cost  not  less  than  two  thousand  francs 
a  year.     The  mother  felt  the  necessity  of  keeping  her 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  33 

under  the  eye  of  her  godfather  and  godmother.  She 
therefore  very  willingly  adopted  the  proposal  of  Made- 
moiselle Thuillier,  who,  without  committing  herself  to 
any  engagement,  allowed  Madame  Colleville  to  under- 
stand that  the  fortunes  of  her  brother,  his  wife,  and  her- 
self would  go,  ultimately,  to  the  little  Celeste.  The  child 
had  been  left  at  Auteuil  until  she  was  seven  years  of 
age,  adored  by  the  good  old  Madame  Lemprun,  who  died 
in  1829,  leaving  twenty  thousand  francs,  and  a  house 
which  was  sold  for  the  enormous  sum  of  twenty-eight 
thousand.  The  lively  little  girl  had  seen  very  little  of 
her  mother,  but  very  much  of  Mademoiselle  and  Madame 
Thuillier  when  she  first  returned  to  the  paternal  mansion  in 
1829;  but  in  1833  she  fell  under  the  dominion  of  Flavie, 
who  was  then,  as  we  have  said,  endeavoring  to  do  her 
duty,  which,  like  other  women  instigated  by  remorse, 
she  exaggerated.  Without  being  an  unkind  mother, 
Flavie  was  very  stern  with  her  daughter.  She  remem- 
bered her  own  bringing-up,  and  swore  within  herself  to 
make  Celeste  a  virtuous  woman.  She  took  her  to  mass, 
and  had  her  prepared  for  her  first  communion  by  a  rector 
who  has  since  become  a  bishop.  •  Celeste  was  all  the 
more  readily  pious,  because  her  godmother,  Madame 
Thuillier,  was  a  saint,  and  the  child  adored  her;  she  felt 
that  the  poor  neglected  woman  loved  her  better  than  her 
own  mother. 

From  1833  to  1840  she  received  a  brilliant  education 
according  to  the  ideas  of  the  bourgeoisie.  The  best 
music-masters  made  her  a  fair  musician ;  she  could  paint 
a  water-color  properly;  she  danced  extremely  well;  and 
she  had  studied  the  French  language,  history,  geography, 
English,  Italian,  —  in  short,  all  that  constitutes  the  edu- 
cation of  a  well-brought-up  young  lady.  Of  medium 
height,  rather  plump,  unfortunately  near-sighted,  she 
was  neither  plain  nor  pretty;  not  without  delicacy  or 
even    brilliancy  of  complexion,    it  is  true,   but  totally 

3 


34  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

devoid  of  all  distinction  of  manner.  She  bad  a  great  fund 
of  reserved  sensibility,  and  ber  godfatber  and  godmother, 
Mademoiselle  Tbuillier  and  Colleville,  were  unanimous 
on  one  point,  —  the  great  resource  of  mothers  —  namely, 
that  Celeste  was  capable  of  attachment.  One  of  her 
beauties  was  a  magnificent  head  of  very  fine  blond 
hair;  but  her  hands  and  feet  showed  iier  bourgeois 
origin. 

Celeste  endeared  herself  by  precious  qualities:  she 
was  kind,  simple,  without  gall  of  any  kind;  she  loved 
her  father  and  mother,  and  would  willingly  sacrifice  her- 
self for  their  sake.  Brought  up  to  the  deepest  admira- 
tion for  her  godfather  by  Brigitte  (who  taught  her  to 
say  u  Aunt  Brigitte  "),  and  by  Madame  Thuillier  and  her 
own  mother,  Celeste  imbibed  the  highest  idea  of  the 
ex-beau  of  the  Empire.  The  house  in  the  rue  Saint- 
Dominique  d'Enfer  produced  upon  her  very  much  the 
effect  of  the  Chateau  des  Tuileries  on  a  courtier  of  the 
new  dynasty. 

Thuillier  had  not  escaped  the  action  of  the  adminis- 
trative rolling-pin  which  thins  the  mind' as  it  spreads  it 
out.  Exhausted  by  irksome  toil,  as  much  as  by  his  life 
of  gallantry,  the  ex-sub-director  had  well-nigh  lost  all  his 
faculties  by  the  time  he  came  to  live  in  the  rue  Saint- 
Dominique.  But  his  weary  face,  on  which  there  still 
reigned  an  air  of  imperial  haughtiness,  mingled  with  a 
certain  contentment,  the  conceit  of  an  upper  official,  made 
a  deep  impression  upon  Celeste.  She  alone  adored  Unit 
haggard  face.  The  girl,  moreover,  felt  herself  to  be  the 
happiness  of  the  Thuillier  household. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  35 


IV. 

THE    CIRCLE    OF    MONSIEUR   AND    MADAME    THUILLIER. 

The  Collevilles  and  their  children  became,  naturally, 
the  nucleus  of  the  circle  which  Mademoiselle  Thuillier 
had  the  ambition  to  group  around  her  brother.  A  former 
clerk  in  the  Billardiere  division  of  the  ministry,  named 
Phellion,  had  lived  for  the  last  thirty  years  in  their 
present  quarter.  He  was  promptly  greeted  by  Colleville 
and  Thuillier  at  the  first  review.  Phellion  proved  to  be 
one  of  the  most  respected  men  in  the  arrondissement. 
He  had  one  daughter,  now  married  to  a  school-teacher  in 
the  rue  Saint-Hyacinthe,  a  Monsieur  Barniol.  Phellion' s 
eldest  son  was  a  professor  of  mathematics  in  a  royal 
college;  he  gave  lectures  and  private  lessons,  being 
devoted,  so  his  father  was  wont  to  say,  to  pure  mathe- 
matics. A  second  son  was  in  the  government  School  of 
Engineering.  Phellion  had  a  pension  of  nine  hundred 
francs,  and  he  possessed  a  little  property  of  nine  thous- 
and and  a  few  odd  hundred  francs;  the  fruit  of  his  econ- 
omy and  that  of  his  wife  during  thirty  years  of  toil  and 
privation.  He  was,  moreover,  the  owner  Of  a  little  house 
and  garden  where  he  lived  in  the  impasse  des  Feuillan- 
tines,  —  in  thirty  years  he  had  never  used  the  old- 
fashioned  word  cul-de-sac/ 

Dutocq,  the  clerk  of  the  justice  of  peace,  was  also  a 
former  employe  at  the  ministry  of  finance.  Sacrificed, 
in  former  days,  to  one  of  those  necessities  which  are 
always  met  with  in  representative  government,  he  had 
accepted  the  position  of  scapegoat,  receiving,  privately, 
a  round  sum  of  money  and  the  opportunity  to  buy  his 


36  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

present  post  of  clerk  in  the  arrondissement.  This  man, 
not  very  honorable,  and  known  to  be  a  spy  in  the  govern- 
ment offices,  was  never  welcomed  as  he  thought  he  ought 
to  be  by  the  Thuilliers;  but  the  coldness  of  his  landlords 
only  made  him  the  more  persistent  in  going  to  see  them. 
He  was  a  bachelor  and  had  various  vices;  he  therefore 
concealed  his  life  carefully,  knowing  well  how  to  main- 
tain his  position  by  flattering  his  superiors.  The  jus- 
tice of  peace  was  much  attached  to  Dutocq.  This  man, 
base  as  he  was,  managed,  in  the  end,  to  make  himself 
tolerated  by  the  Thuilliers,  chiefly  by  coarse  and  cring- 
ing adulation.  He  knew  the  facts  of  Thuillier's  whole 
life,  his  relations  with  Colleville,  and,  above  all,  with 
Madame  Colleville.  One  and  all  they  feared  his  tongue, 
and  the  Thuilliers,  without  admitting  him  to  any  inti- 
macy, endured  his  visits. 

The  family  which  became  the  flower  of  the  Thuillier 
salon  was  that  of  a  former  ministerial  clerk,  once  an  object 
of  pity  in  the  government  offices,  who,  driven  by  poverty, 
left  the  public  service,  in  1827,  to  fling  himself  into  a 
business  enterprise,  having,  as  he  thought,  an  idea. 
Minard  (that  was  his  name)  foresaw  a  fortune  in  one  of 
those  wicked  conceptions  which  reflect  such  discredit  on 
French  commerce,  but  which,  in  the  year  1827,  had  not 
yet  been  exposed  and  blasted  by  publicity.  Minard 
bought  tea  and  mixed  it  with  tea-leaves  already  used; 
also  he  adulterated  the  elements  of  chocolate  in  a  man- 
ner which  enabled  him  to  sell  the  chocolate  itself  very 
cheaply.  This  trade  in  colonial  products,  begun  in  the 
quartier  Saint-Marcel,  made  a  merchant  of  Minard.  He 
started  a  factory,  and  through  these  early  connections  he 
was  able  to  reach  the  sources  of  raw  material.  He  then 
did  honorably,  and  on  a  large  scale,  a  business  begun  in 
the  first  instance  dishonorably.  He  became  a  distiller, 
worked  upon  untold  quantities  of  products,  and,  by 
the  year  1835,  was  considered  the  richest  merchant  in 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  37 

the  region  of  the  Place  Maubert.  By  that  time  he  had 
bought  a  handsome  house  in  the  rue  des  Macons- 
Sorbonne;  he  had  been  assistant  mayor,  and  in  1839 
became  mayor  of  his  arrondissement  and  judge  in  the 
Court  of  Commerce.  He  kept  a  carriage,  had  a  country- 
place  'near  Lagny;  his  wife  wore  diamonds  at  the  court 
balls,  and  he  prided  himself  on  the  rosette  of  an  officer 
of  the  Legion  of  honor  in  his  buttonhole. 

Minard  and  his  wife  were  exceedingly  benevolent. 
Perhaps  he  wished  to  return  in  retail  to  the  poor  the 
sums  he  had  mulcted  from  the  public  by  the  wholesale. 
Phellion,  Colleville,  and  Thuillier  met  their  old  comrade, 
Minard,  at  election,  and  an  intimacy  followed;  all  the 
closer  with  the  Thuilliers  and  Collevilles  because  Madame 
Minard  seemed  enchanted  to  make  an  acquaintance  for 
her  daughter  in  Celeste  Colleville.  It  was  at  a  grand 
ball  given  by  the  Minards  that  Celeste  made  her  first 
appearance  in  society  (being  at  that  time  sixteen  and  a 
half  years  old),  dressed  as  her  Christian  name  demanded, 
which  seemed  to  be  prophetic  of  her  coming  life. 
Delighted  to  be  friendly  with  Mademoiselle  Minard,  her 
elder  by  four  years,  she  persuaded  her  father  and  god- 
father to  cultivate  the  Minard  establishment,  with  its 
gilded  salons  and  great  opulence,  where  many  political 
celebrities  of  the  juste  milieu  were  wont  to  congregate, 
such  as  Monsieur  Popinot,  who  became,  after  a  time, 
minister  of  commerce;  Cochin,  since  made  Baron  Cochin, 
a  former  employe  at  the  ministry  of  finance,  who,  having  , 
a  large  interest  in  the  drug  business,  was  now  the  oracle 
of  the  Lombard  and  Bourdonnais  quarters,  conjointly 
with  Monsieur  Anselme  Popinot.  Minaret's  eldest  son, 
a  lawyer,  aiming  to  succeed  those  barristers  who  were 
turned  down  from  the  Palais  for  political  reasons  in 
1830,  was  the  genius  of  the  household,  and  his  mother, 
even  more  than  his  father,  aspired  to  marry  him  well. 
Zelie  Minard,    formerly  a  flower-maker,   felt  an  ardent 


38  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 

passion  for  the  upper  social  spheres,  and  desired  to  enter 
them  through  the  marriages  of  her  son  and  daughter; 
whereas  Minard,  wiser  than  she,  and  imbued  with  the 
vigor  of  the  middle  classes,  which  the  revolution  of  July 
had  infiltrated  into  the  fibres  of  government,  thought 
only  of  wealth  and  fortune. 

He  frequented  the  Thuillier  salon  to  gain  information 
as  to  Celeste's  probable  inheritance.  He  knew,  like 
Dutocq  and  Phellion,  the  reports  occasioned  by  Thuillier's 
former  intimacy  with  Flavie,  and  he  saw  at  a  glance  the 
idolatry  of  the  Thuilliers  for  their  godchild.  Dutocq, 
to  gain  admittance  to  Minard's  house,  fawned  upon  him 
grossly.  When  Minard,  the  Rothschild  of  the  arron- 
dissement,  appeared  at  the  Thuilliers',  he  compared  him 
cleverly  to  Napoleon,  finding  him  stout,  fat,  and  bloom- 
ing, having  left  him  at  the  ministry  thin,  pale,  and 
puny. 

"You  looked,  in  the  division  Billardiere,"  he  said, 
"like  Napoleon  before  the  18th  Brumaire,  aiid  I  behold 
you  now  the  Napoleon  of  the  Empire." 

Notwithstanding  which  flattery,  Minard  received 
Dutocq  very  coldly  and  did  not  invite  him  to  his  house; 
consequently,  he  made  a  mortal  enemy  of  the  former 
clerk. 

Monsieur  and  Madame  Phellion,  worthy  as  they  were, 
could  not  keep  themselves  from  making  calculations  and 
cherishing  hopes;  they  thought  that  Celeste  would  be  the 
very  wife  for  their  son  the  professor;  therefore,  to  have, 
as  it  were,  a  watcher  in  the  Thuillier  salon,  they  intro- 
duced their  son-in-law,  Monsieur  Barniol,  a  man  much 
respected  in  the  faubourg  Saint-Jacques,  and  also  an 
old  employe  at  the  mayor's  office,  an  intimate  friend  of 
theirs,  named  Laudigeois.  Thus  the  Phellions  formed 
a  phalanx  of  seven  persons;  the  Collevilles  were  not  less 
numerous;  so  that  on  Sundays  it  often  happened  that 
thirty   persons  were   assembled   in  the  Thuillier  salon. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  39 

Thuillier  renewed  acquaintance  with  the  Saillards,  Bau- 
doyers,  and  Falleixs,  —  all  persons  of  respectability  in 
the  quarter  of  the  Palais-Royal,  whom  they  often  invited 
to  dinner. 

Madame  Colleville  was,  as  a  woman,  the  most  distin- 
guished member  of  this  society,  just  as  Minard  junior 
and  Professor  Phellion  were  superior  among  the  men. 
All  the  others,  without  ideas  or  education,  and  issuing 
from  the  lower  ranks,  presented  the  types  and  the  absurd- 
ities of  the  lesser  bourgeoisie.  Though  all  success, 
especially  if  won  from  distant  sources,  seems  to  presup- 
pose some  genuine  merit,  Minard  was  really  an  inflated 
balloon.  Expressing  himself  in  empty  phrases,  mistak- 
ing sycophancy  for  politeness,  and  wordiness  for  wit,  he 
uttered  his  commonplaces  with  a  brisk  assurance  that 
passed  for  eloquence.  Certain  words  which  said  noth- 
ing but  answered  all  things,  —  progress,  steam,  bitumen, 
National  guard,  order,  democratic  element,  spirit  of 
association,  legality,  movement,  resistance,  —  seemed, 
as  each  political  phase  developed,  to  have  been  actually 
made  for  Minard,  whose  talk  was  a  paraphrase  on  the 
ideas  of  his  newspaper.  Julien  Minard,  the  young 
lawyer,  suffered  from  his  father  as  much  as  his  father 
suffered  from  his  wife.  Zelie  had  grown  pretentious 
with  wealth,  without,  at  the  same  time,  learning  to  speak 
French.  She  was  now  very  fat,  and  gave  the  idea,  in 
her  rich  surroundings,  of  a  cook  married  to  her  master. 

Phellion,  that  type  and  model  of  the  petty  bourgeois, 
exhibited  as  many  virtues  as  he  did  absurdities.  Accus- 
tomed to  subordination  during  his  bureaucratic  life,  he 
respected  all  social  superiority.  He  was  therefore  silent 
before  Minard.  During  the  critical  period  of  retirement 
from  office,  he  had  held  his  own  admirably,  for  the  follow- 
ing reason.  Never  until  now  had  that  worthy  and  excellent 
man  been  able  to  indulge  his  own  tastes.  He  loved  the 
city  of  Paris ;  he  was  interested  in  its  embellishment,  in 


40  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

the  laying  out  of  its  streets;  he  was  capable  of  standing 
for  hours  to  watch  the  demolition  of  houses.  He  might 
now  have  been  observed,  stolidly  planted  on  his  legs, 
his  nose  in  the  air,  watching  for  the  fall  of  a  stone  which 
some  mason  was  loosening  at  the  top  of  a  wall,  and 
never  moving  till  the  stone  fell;  when  it  had  fallen  he 
went  away  as  happy  as  an  academician  at  the  fall  of 
a  romantic  drama.  Veritable  supernumeraries  of  the 
social  comedy,  Phellion,  Laudigeois,  and  their  kind, 
fulfilled  the  functions  of  the  antique  chorus.  They  wept 
when  weeping  was  in  order,  laughed  when  they  should 
laugh,  and  sang  in  parts  the  public  joys  and  sorrows; 
they  triumphed  in  their  corner  with  the  triumphs  of 
Algiers,  of  Constantine,  of  Lisbon,  of  Sainte-Jean- 
d'Ulloa;  they  deplored  the  death  of  Napoleou  and  the 
fatal  catastrophes  of  Saint-Merri  and  the  rue  Trans- 
nonnain,  grieving  over  celebrated  men  who  were  utterly 
unknown  to  them.  Phellion  alone  presents  a  double 
side:  he  divides  himself  conscientiously  between  the 
reasons  of  the  opposition  and  those  of  the  government. 
When  fighting  went  on  in  the  streets,  Phellion  had  the 
courage  to  declare  himself  before  his  neighbors ;  he  went 
to  the  Place  Saint-Michel,  the  place  where  his  battalion 
assembled;  he  felt  for  the  government  and  did  his  duty. 
Before  and  during  the  riot,  he  supported  the  dynasty, 
the  product  of  July;  but,  as  soon  as  the  political  trials 
began,  he  stood  by  the  accused.  This  innocent  weather- 
cockism  prevails  in  his  political  opinions;  he  produces, 
in  reply  to  all  arguments,  the  "colossus  of  the  North." 
England  is,  to  his  thinking,  as  to  that  of  the  old  Con- 
stitutio?inel,  a  crone  with  two  faces, — Machiavellian 
Albion,  and  the  model  nation:  Machiavellian,  when  the' 
interests  of  France  and  of  Napoleon  are  concerned;  the 
model  nation  when  the  faults  of  the  government  were 
in  question.  He  admits,  with  his  chosen  paper,  the 
democratic    element,    but    refuses    in   conversation    all 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  41 

compact  with  the  republican  spirit.  The  republican 
spirit  to  him  means  1793,  rioting,  the  Terror,  and  agra- 
rian law.  The  democratic  element  is  the  development  of 
the  lesser  bourgeoisie,  the  reign  of  Phellions. 

The  worthy  old  man  is  always  dignified;  dignity 
serves  to  explain  his  life.  He  has  brought  up  his  chil- 
dren with  dignity;  he  has  kept  himself  a  father  in  their 
eyes;  he  insists  on  being  honored  in  his  home,  just  as 
he  himself  honors  power  and  his  superiors.  He  has  never 
made  debts.  As  a  juryman  his  conscience  obliges  him 
to  sweat  blood  and  water  in  the  effort  to  follow  the 
debates  of  a  trial;  he  never  laughs,  not  even  if  the  judge, 
the  audience,  and  all  the  officials  laugh.  Eminently  use- 
ful, he  gives  his  services,  his  time,  everything  —  except 
his  money.  Felix  Phellion,  his  son,  the  professor,  is 
his  idol;  he  thinks  him  capable  of  attaining  to  the 
Academy  of  Sciences.  Thuillier,  between  the  audacious 
nullity  of  Minard,  and  the  solid  silliness  of  Phellion, 
was  a  neutral  substance,  but  connected  with  both  through 
his  dismal  experience.  He  managed  to  conceal  the  empti- 
ness of  his  brain  by  commonplace  talk,  just  as  he  covered 
the  yellow  skin  of  his  bald  pate  with  thready  locks  of 
his  gray  hair,  brought  from  the  back  of  his  head  with 
infinite  art  by  the  comb  of  his  hairdresser. 

"In  any  other  career,"  he  was  wont  to  say,  speaking 
of  government  employ,  "I  should  have  made  a  very 
different  fortune." 

He  had  seen  the  right,  which  is  possible  in  theory  and 
impossible  in  practice,  —  results  proving  contrary  to 
premises,  —  and  he  related  the  intrigues  and  the  injus- 
tices of  the  Rabourdin  affair.     [See  Bureaucracy.] 

"After  that,  one  can  believe  all,  and  believe  nothing," 
he  would  say.  "Ah!  it  is  a  queer  thing,  government! 
I  'm  very  glad  not  to  have  a  son,  and  never  to  see  him 
in  the  career  of  a  place-hunter." 

Colleville,  ever  gay,  rotund,  and  good-humored,  a  sayer 


42  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

of  quodlibets,  a  maker  of  anagrams,  always  busy,  repre- 
sented the  capable  and  bantering  bourgeois,  with  faculty 
without  success,  obstinate  toil  without  result;  he  was 
also  the  embodiment  of  jovial  resignation,  mind  without 
object,  art  without  usefulness,  for,  excellent  musician 
that  he  was,  he  never  played  now  except  for  his 
daughter. 

The  Thuillier  salon  was  in  some  sort  a  provincial 
salon,  lighted,  however,  by  continual  flashes  from  the 
Parisian  conflagration;  its  mediocrity  and  its  platitudes 
followed  the  current  of  the  times.  The  popular  saying 
and  thing  (for  in  Paris  the  thing  and  its  saying  are  like 
the  horse  and  its  rider)  ricochetted,  so  to  speak,  to  this 
company.  Monsieur  Minard  was  always  impatiently 
expected,  for  he  was  certain  to  know  the  truth  of  impor- 
tant circumstances.  The  women  of  the  Thuillier  salon 
held  by  the  Jesuits;  the  men  defended  the  University; 
and,  as  a  general  thing,  the  women  listened.  A  man  of 
intelligence  (could  he  have  borne  the  dulness  of  these 
evenings)  would  have  laughed,  as  he  would  at  a  comedy 
of  Moliere,  on  hearing,  amid  endless  discussions,  such 
remarks  as  the  following :  — 

"How  could  the  Revolution  of  1789  have  been 
avoided?  The  loans  of  Louis  XIV.  prepared  the  way  for 
it.  Louis  XV.,  an  egotist,  a  man  of  narrow  mind 
(did  n't  he  say,  l  If  I  were  lieutenant  of  police  I  would 
suppress  cabriolets'  ?),  that  dissolute  king  —  you  remem- 
ber his  Pare  aux  Cerfs?  —  did  much  to  open  the  abyss 
of  revolution.  Monsieur  de  Necker,  an  evil-minded 
Genovese,  set  the  thing  a-going.  Foreigners  have  always 
tried  to  injure  France.  The  maximum  did  great  harm 
to  the  Revolution.  Legally  Louis  XVI.  should  never 
have  been  condemned ;  a  jury  would  have  acquitted  him. 
Why  did  Charles  X.  fall?  Napoleon  was  a  great  man, 
and  the  facts  that  prove  his  genius  are  anecdotical :  he 
took  five  pinches  of  snuff  a  minute  out  of  a  pocket  lined 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie  43 

with  leather  made  in  his  waistcoat.  He  looked  into  all 
his  tradesmen's  accounts;  he  went  to  Saint-Denis  to 
judge  for  himself  of  the  prices  of  things.  Talma  was 
his  friend;  Talma  taught  him  his  gestures;  nevertheless, 
he  always  refused  to  give  Talma  the  Legion  of  honor! 
The  emperor  mounted  guard  for  a  sentinel  who'went  to 
sleep,  to  save  him  from  being  shot.  Those  were  the 
things  that  made  the  soldiers  adore  him.  Louis  XVIII. , 
who  certainly  had  some  sense,  was  very  unjust  in  calling 
him  Monsieur  de  Buonaparte.  The  defect  of  the  present 
government  is  in  letting  itself  be  led  instead  of  leading. 
It  holds  itself  too  low.  It  is  afraid  of  men  of  energy. 
It  ought  to  have  torn  up  all  the  treaties  of  1815  and 
demanded  the  Rhine.  They  keep  the  same  men  too  long 
in  the  ministry;  "  etc.,  etc. 

"Come,  you've  exerted  your  minds  long  enough,"  said 
Mademoiselle  Thuillier,  interrupting  one  of  these  lumi- 
nous talks;  "the  altar  is  dressed ;  begin  your  little  game." 

If  these  anterior  facts  and  all  these  generalities  were 
not  placed  here  as  the  frame  of  the  present  Scene,  to 
give  an  idea  of  the  spirit  of  this  society,  the  following 
drama  would  certainly  have  suffered  greatly.  Moreover, 
this  sketch  is  historically  faithful;  it  shows  a  social 
stratum  of  importance  in  any  portrayal  of  manners  and 
morals,  especially  when  we  reflect  that  the  political  sys- 
tem of  the  Younger  branch  rests  almost  wholly  upon  it. 

The  winter  of  the  year  1839  was,  it  may  be  said,  the 
period  when  the  Thuillier  salon  was  in  its  greatest  glory. 
The  Minards  came  nearly  every  Sunday,  and  began  their 
evening  by  spending  an  hour  there,  if  they  had  other 
engagements  elsewhere.  Often  Minarcl  would  leave  his 
wife  at  the  Thuilliers  and  take  his  son  and  daughter  to 
other  houses.  This  assiduity  on  the  part  of  the  Minards 
was  brought  about  by  a  somewhat  tardy  meeting  between 
Messieurs  Metivier,  Barbet,  and  Minard  on  an  evening 
when   the   two   former,  being  tenants  of  Mademoiselle 


44  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Thuillier,  remained  rather  longer  than  usual  in  discuss- 
ing business  with  her.  From  Barbet,  Minard  learned 
that  the  old  maid  had  money  transactions  with  himself 
and  Metivier  to  the  amount  of  sixty  thousand  francs, 
besides  having  a  large  deposit  in  the  Bank. 

"Has -she  an  account  at  the  Bank?"  asked  Minard. 

"I  believe  so,"  replied  Barbet.  "I  give  her  at  least 
eighty  thousand  francs  there." 

Being  on  intimate  terms  with  a  governor  of  the  Bank, 
Minard  ascertained  that  Mademoiselle  Thuillier  had,  in 
point  of  fact,  an  account  of  over  two  hundred  thousand 
francs,  the  result  of  her  quarterly  deposits  for  many 
years.  Besides  this,  she  owned  the  house  they  lived  in, 
which  was  not  mortgaged,  and  was  worth  at  least  one 
hundred  thousand  francs,  if  not  more. 

uWhy  should  Mademoiselle  Thuillier  work  in  this 
way?"  said  Minard  to  Metivier.  "She'd  be  a  good 
match  for  you,"  he  added. 

"I?  oh,  no,"  replied  Metivier.  "I  shall  do  better  by 
marrying  a  cousin;  my  uncle  Metivier  has  given  me  the 
succession  to  his  business;  he  has  a  hundred  thousand 
francs  a  year  and  only  two  daughters." 

However  secretive  Mademoiselle  Thuillier  might  be, 
—  and  she  said  nothing  of  her  investments  to  any  one, 
not  even  to  her  brother,  although  a  large  amount  of 
Madame  Thuillier's  fortune  went  to  swell  the  amount 
of  her  own  savings,  —  it  was  difficult  to  prevent  some 
ray  of  light  from  gliding  under  the  bushel  which  covered 
her  treasure. 

Dutocq,  who  frequented  Barbet,  with  whom  he  had 
some  resemblance  in  character  and  countenance,  had 
appraised,  even  more  correctly  than  Minard,  the  Thuillier 
finances.  He  knew  that  their  savings  amounted,  in 
1838,  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs,  and  he 
followed  their  progress  secretly,  calculating  profits  by 
the  help  of  that  all-wise  money-lender,  Barbet. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  45 

"Celeste  will  have  from  my  brother  and  myself  two 
hundred  thousand  francs  in  ready  money,'1  the  old  maid 
had  said  to  Barbet  in  confidence,  "and  Madame  Thuillier 
wishes  to  secure. to  her  by  the  marriage  contract  the  ulti- 
mate possession  of  her  own  fortune.  As  for  me,  my 
will  is  made.  My  brother  will  have  everything  dur- 
ing his  lifetime,  and  Celeste  will  be  my  heiress  with 
that  reservation.  Monsieur  Cardot,  the  notary,  is  my 
executor." 

Mademoiselle  Thuillier  now  instigated  her  brother  to 
renew  his  former  relations  with  the  Saillards,  Baudoyers, 
and  others,  who  held  a  position  similar  to  that  of  the 
Thuilliers  in  the  quartier  Saint-Antoine,  of  which  Mon- 
sieur Saillard  was  mayor.  Cardot,  the  notary,  had  pro- 
duced his  aspirant  for  Celeste's  hand  in  the  person  of 
Monsieur  Godeschal,  attorney  and  successor  to  Derville; 
an  able  man,  thirty-six  years  of  age,  who  had  paid  one 
hundred  thousand  francs  for  his  practice,  which  the  two 
hundred  thousand  of  the  dot  would  doubly  clear  off. 
Minard,  however,  got  rid  of  Godeschal  by  informing 
Mademoiselle  Thuillier  that  Celeste's  sister-in-law  would 
be  the  famous  Mariette  of  the  Opera. 

"She  came  from  the  stage,"  said  Colleville,  alluding 
to  his  wife,  "and  there  's  no  need  she  should  return  to  it." 

"Besides,  Monsieur  Godeschal  is  too  old  for  Celeste," 
remarked  Brigitte. 

"And  ought  we  not,"  added  Madame  Thuillier,  timidly, 
"to  let  her  marry  according  to  her  own  taste,  so  as  to  be 
happy?" 

The  poor  woman  had  detected  in  Felix  Phellion  a 
true  love  for  Celeste;  the  love  that  a  woman  crushed 
by  Brigitte  and  wounded  by  her  husband's  indifference 
(for  Thuillier  cared  less  for  his  wife  than  he  did  for  a 
servant)  had  dreamed  that  love  might  be,  —  bold  in 
heart,  timid  externally,  sure  of  itself,  reserved,  hidden 
from  others,  but  expanding  toward  heaven.     At  twenty- 


46  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

three  years  of  age,  Felix  Phellion  was  a  gentle,  pure- 
minded  young  man,  like  all  true  scholars  who  cultivate 
knowledge  for  knowledge's  sake.  He  had  been  sacredly 
brought-up  by  his  father,  who,  viewing  all  things  seri- 
ously, had  given  him  none  but  good  examples  accom- 
panied by  trivial  maxims.  He  was  a  young  man  of 
medium  height,  with  light  chestnut  hair,  gray  eyes,  and 
a  skin  full  of  freckles;  gifted  with  a  charming  voice,  a 
tranquil  manner;  making  few  gestures;  thoughtful,  say- 
ing little,  and  that  little  sensible;  contradicting  no  one, 
and  quite  incapable  of  a  sordid  thought  or  a  selfish 
calculation. 

"That,"  thought  Madame  Thuillier,  "is  what  I  should 
have  liked  my  husband  to  be." 

One  evening,  in  the  month  of  February,  1840,  the 
Thuillier  salon  contained  the  various  personages  whose 
silhouettes  we  have  just  traced  out,  together  with  some 
others.  It  was  nearly  the  end  of  the  month.  Barbet  and 
Metivier  having  business  with  Mademoiselle  Brigitte, 
were  playing  whist  with  Minard  and  Phellion.  At 
another  table  were  Julien  the  advocate  (a  nickname 
given  by  Colleville  to  young  Minard),  Madame  Colleville, 
Monsieur  Barniol,  and  Madame  Phellion.  Bouillotte, 
at  five  sous  a  stake,  occupied  Madame  Minard,  who  knew 
no  other  game,  Colleville,  old  Monsieur  Saillard,  and 
Bandoze,  his  son-in-law.  The  substitutes  were  Laudi- 
geois  and  Dutocq.  Mesdames  Falleix,  Baudoyer, 
Barniol,  and  Mademoiselle  Minard  were  playing  boston, 
and  Celeste  was  sitting  beside  Prudence  Minard.  Young 
Phellion  was  listening  to  Madame  Thuillier  and  looking 
at  Celeste. 

At  a  corner  of  the  fireplace  sat  enthroned  on  a  sofa 
the  Queen  Elizabeth  of  the  family,  as  simply  dressed  as 
she  had  been  for  the  last  thirty  years;  for  no  prosperity 
could  have  made  her  change  her  habits.  She  wore  on 
her  chinchilla  hair  a  black  gauze  cap,  adorned  with  the 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  47 

geranium  called  Charles  X. ;  her  gown,  of  plum-colored 
stuff,  made  with  a  yoke,  cost  fifteen  francs,  her  embroid- 
ered collarette  was  worth  six,  and  it  ill  disguised  the 
deep  wrinkle  produced  by  the  two  muscles  which  fastened 
the  head  to  the  vertebral  column.  The  actor,  Monvel, 
playing  Augustus  Caesar  in  his  old  age,  did  not  present 
a  harder  and  sterner  profile  than  that  of  this  female  auto- 
crat, knitting  socks  for  her  brother.  Before  the  fireplace 
stood  Thuillier  in  an  attitude,  ready  to  go  forward  and 
meet  the  arriving  guests;  near  him  was  a  young  man 
whose  entrance  had  produced  a  great  effect,  when  the 
porter  (who  on  Sundays  wore  his  best  clothes  and  waited 
on  the  company)  announced  Monsieur  Olivier  Vinet. 

A  private  communication  made  by  Cardot  to  the  cele- 
brated procureur-general,  father  of  this  young  man,  was 
the  cause  of  his  visit.  Olivier  Vinet  had  just  been  pro- 
moted from  the  court  of  Arcis-sur-Aube  to  that  of  the 
Seine,  where  he  now  held  the  post  of  substitute  prb*- 
cureur-du-roi.  Cardot  had  already  invited  Thuillier  and 
the  elder  Vinet,  who  was  likely  to  become  minister  of 
justice,  with  his  son,  to  dine  with  him.  The  notary 
estimated  the  fortunes  which  would  eventually  fall  to 
Celeste  at  seven  hundred  thousand  francs.  Vinet  junior 
appeared  charmed  to  obtain  the  right  to  visit  the  Thuilliers 
on  Sundays.  Great  dowries  make  men  commit  great 
and  unbecoming  follies  without  reserve  or  decency  in 
these  days. 

Ten  minutes  later  another  young  man,  who  had  been 
talking  with  Thuillier  before  the  arrival  of  Olivier  Vinet, 
raised  his  voice  eagerly,  in  a  political  discussion,  and 
forced  the  young  magistrate  to  follow  his  example  in 
the  vivacious  argument  which  now  ensued.  The  matter 
related  to  the  vote  by  which  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
had  just  overthrown  the  ministry  of  the  12th  of  May, 
refusing  the  allowance  demanded  for  the  Due  de 
Nemours. 


48  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Assuredly,"  said  the  young  man,  "I  am  far  from 
belonging  to  the  dynastic  party;  1  am  very  far  from 
approving  of  the  rise  of  the  bourgeoisie  to  power.  The 
bourgeoisie  ought  not,  any  more  than  the  aristocracy  of 
other  days,  to  assume  to  be  the  whole  nation.  But  the 
French  bourgeoisie  has  now  taken  upon  itself  to  create 
a  new  dynasty,  a  royalty  of  its  own,  and  behold  how  it 
treats  it!  When  the  people  allowed  Napoleon  to  rise  to 
power,  it  created  with  him  a  splendid  and  monumental 
state  of  things;  it  was  proud  of  his  grandeur;  and  it 
nobly  gave  its  blood  and  sweat  in  building  up  the  edifice 
of  the  Empire.  Between  the  magnificences  of  the  aris- 
tocratic throne  and  those  of  the  imperial  purple,  between 
the  great  of  the  earth  and  the  People,  the  bourgeoisie  is 
proving  itself  petty;  it  degrades  power  to  its  own  level 
instead  of  rising  up  to  it.  The  saving  of  candle-ends 
it  has  so  long  practised  behind  its  counters,  it  now  seeks 
to  impose  on  its  princes.  What  may  perhaps  have  been 
virtue  in  its  shops  is  a  blunder  and  a  crime  higher  up.  I 
myself  have  wanted  many  things  for  the  people,  but  I 
never  should  have  begun  by  lopping  off  ten  millions  of 
francs  from  the  new  civil  list.  In  becoming,  as  it  were, 
nearly  the  whole  of  France,  the  bourgeoisie  owed  to  us  the 
prosperity  of  the  people,  splendor  without  ostentation, 
grandeur  without  privilege." 

The  father  of  Olivier  Vinet  was  just  now  sulking  with 
the  government.  The  robe  of  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  which 
had  been  his  dream,  was  slow  in  coming  to  him.  The 
young  substitute  did  not,  therefore,  know  exactly  how 
to  answer  this  speech;  he  thought  it  wise  to  enlarge  on 
one  of  its  side  issues. 

"You  are  right,  monsieur,"  said  Olivier  Vinet.  "But, 
before  manifesting  itself  magnificently,  the  bourgeoisie 
has  other  duties  to  fulfil  toward  France.  The  luxury 
you  speak  of  should  come  after  duty.  That  which  seems 
to  you  so  blamable  is  the  necessity  of  the  moment.     The 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  49 

Chamber  is  far  from  having  its  full  share  in  public 
affairs ;  the  ministers  are  less  for  France  than  they  are 
for  the  crown,  and  parliament  has  determined  that  the 
administration  shall  have,  as  in  England,  a  strength  and 
power  of  its  own,  and  not  a  mere  borrowed  power.  The 
day  on  which  the  administration  can  act  for  itself,  and 
represent  the  Chamber  as  the  Chamber  represents  the 
country,  parliament  will  be  found  very  liberal  toward 
the  crown.  The  whole  question  is  there.  I  state  it 
without  expressing  my  own  opinion,  for  the  duties  of 
my  post  demand,  in  politics,  a  certain  fealty  to  the 
crown." 

"  Setting  aside  the  political  question,"  replied  the 
young  man,  whose  voice  and  accent  were  those  of  a 
native  of  Provence,  "it  is  certainly  true  that  the  bour- 
geoisie has  ill  understood  its  mission.  We  can  see,  any 
day,  the  great  law  officers,  attorney-generals,  peers  of 
France  in  omnibuses,  judges  who  live  on  their  salaries, 
prefects  without  fortunes,  ministers  in  debt!  Whereas 
the  bourgeoisie,  who  have  seized  upon  those  offices,  ought 
to  dignify  them,  as  in  the  olden  time  the  aristocracy 
dignified  them,  and  not  occupy  such  posts  solely  for  the 
purpose  of  making  their  fortune,  as  scandalous  dis- 
closures have  proved." 

"Who  is  this  young  man?"  thought  Olivier  Vinet. 
"Is  he  a  relative?  Cardot  ought  to  have  come  with  me 
on  this  first  visit." 

"Who  is  that  little  monsieur?"  asked  Minard  of 
Barbet.     "I  have  seen  him  here  several  times." 

"He  is  a  tenant,"  replied  Metivier,  shuffling  the 
cards. 

"A  lawyer,"  added  Barbet,  in  a  low  voice,  "who 
occupies  a  small  apartment  on  the  third  floor  front. 
Oh!  he  doesn't  amount  to  much;  he  has  nothing." 

"What  is  the  name  of  that  young  man?"  said  Olivier 
Vinet  to  Thuillier. 

4 


50  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Theodose  de  la  Peyrade;  he  is  a  barrister,"  replied 
Thuillier,  in  a  whisper. 

At  that  moment  the  women  present,  as  well  as  the 
men,  looked  at  the  two  young  fellows,  and  Madame 
Minard  remarked  to  Colleville :  — 

4 'He  is  rather  good-looking,  that  stranger." 

"I  have  made  his  anagram,"  replied  Colleville,  uand 
his  name,  Charles-Marie-Theodose  de  la  Peyrade,  prophe- 
sies :  Eh  !  monsieur  pay  era,  de  la  dot,  des  oies  et  le  char. 
Therefore,  my  dear  Mamma  Minard,  be  sure  you  don't 
give  him  your  daughter." 

"They  say  that  young  man  is  better-looking  than 
my  son,"  said  Madame  Phellion  to  Madame  Colleville. 
"What  do  you  think  about  it?" 

"Oh!  in  the  matter  of  physical  beauty  a  woman  might 
hesitate  before  choosing,"  replied  Madame  Colleville. 

At  that  moment  it  occurred  to  young  Vinet  as  he 
looked  round  the  salon,  so  full  of  the  lesser  bourgeoisie, 
that  it  might  be  a  shrewd  thing  to  magnify  that  partic- 
ular class ;  and  he  thereupon  enlarged  upon  the  meaning 
of  the  young  Provencal  barrister,  declaring  that  men  so 
honored  by  the  confidence  of  the  government  should  imi- 
tate royalty  and  encourage  a  magnificence  surpassing 
that  of  the  former  court.  It  was  folly,  he  said,  to  lay 
by  the  emoluments  of  an  office.  Besides,  could  it  be 
done,  in  Paris  especially,  where  costs  of  living  had 
trebled, —  the  apartment  of  a  magistrate,  for  instance, 
costing  three  thousand  francs  a  year? 

"My  father,"  he  said  in  conclusion,  "allows  me  three 
thousand  francs  a  year,  and  that,  with  my  salary,  barely 
allows  me  to  maintain  my  rank." 

When  the  young  substitute  rode  boldly  into  this  bog- 
hole,  the  Provencal,  who  had  slyly  enticed  him  there, 
exchanged,  without  being  observed,  a  wink  with  Dutocq, 
who  was  just  then  waiting  for  the  place  of  a  player  at 
bouillotte. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.       .  51 

11  There  is  such  a  demand  for  offices, "  remarked  the 
latter,  "that  they  talk  of  creating  two  justices  of  the 
peace  to  each  arrondissement  in  order  to  make  a  dozen 
new  clerkships.  As  if  they  could  interfere  with  our 
rights  and  our  salaries,  which  already  require  an 
exorbitant  tax !  " 

"I  have  not  yet  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  you  at  the 
Palais,"  said  Vinet  to  Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade. 

"I  am  advocate  for  the  poor,  and  I  plead  only  before 
the  justice  of  peace,"  replied  la  Peyrade. 

Mademoiselle  Thuillier,  as  she  listened  to  young 
Vinet' s  theory  of  the  necessity  of  spending  an  income, 
assumed  a  distant  air  and  manner,  the  significance  of 
which  was  well  understood  by  Dutocq  and  the  young 
Provencal.  Vinet  left  the  house  in  company  with  Minard 
and  Julien  the  advocate,  so  that  the  battle-field  before 
the  fireplace  was  abandoned  to  La  Peyrade  and  Dutocqo 

"The  upper  bourgeoisie,"  said  Dutocq  to  Thuillier, 
"will  behave,  in  future,  exactly  like  the  old  aristocracy. 
The  nobility  wanted  girls  with  money  to  manure  their 
lands,  and  the  parvenus  of  to-day  want  the  same  to 
feather  their  nests." 

"That's  exactly  what  Monsieur  Thuillier  was  saying 
to  me  this  morning,"  remarked  la  Peyrade,  boldly. 

" Vinet' s  father,"  said  Dutocq,  "married  a  Demoiselle 
de  Chargebceuf  and  has  caught  the  opinions  of  the  no- 
bility; he  wants  a  fortune  at  any  price;  his  wife  spends 
money  regally." 

"Oh!"  said  Thuillier,  in  whom  the  jealousy  between 
the  two  classes  of  the  bourgeoisie  was  fully  roused,  "take 
offices  away  from  those  fellows  and  they  'd  fall  back 
where  they  came." 

Mademoiselle  Thuillier  was  knitting  with  such  precip- 
itous haste  that  she  seemed  to  be  propelled  by  a  steam- 
engine. 

"Take   my   place,  Monsieur   Dutocq,"  said   Madame 


52  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Minard,  rising.  "My  feet  are  cold,"  she  added,  going 
to  the  fire,  where  the  golden  ornaments  of  her  turban 
made  fireworks  in  the  light  of  the  Saint- Aurora  wax- 
candles  that  were  struggling  vainly  to  illuminate  the  vast 
salon. 

"He  is  very  small  fry,  that  young  substitute,"  said 
Madame  Minard,  glancing  at  Mademoiselle  Thuillier. 

"Small  fry!  "  cried  la  Peyrade.  "Ah,  madame!  how 
witty!" 

"  But  madame  has  so  long  accustomed  us  to  that  sort 
of  thing,"  said  the  handsome  Thuillier. 

Madame  Colleville  was  examining  la  Peyrade  and 
comparing  him  with  young  Phellion,  who  was  just  then 
talking  to  Celeste,  neither  of  them  paying  any  heed  to 
what  was  going  on  around  them.  This  is,  certainly,  the 
right  moment  to  depict  the  singular  personage  who  was 
destined  to  play  a  signal  part  in  the  Thuillier  household, 
and  who  fully  deserves  the  appellation  of  a  great  artist. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  53 


A   PRINCIPAL   PERSONAGE. 

There  exists  in  Provence,  especially  about  Avignon, 
a  race  of  men  with  blond  or  chestnut  hair,  fair  skin, 
and  eyes  that  are  almost  tender,  their  pupils  calm, 
feeble,  or  languishing,  rather  than  keen,  ardent,  or  pro- 
found, as  they  usually  are  in  the  eyes  of  Southerners. 
Let  us  remark,  in  passing,  that  among  Corsicans,  a  race 
subject  to  fits  of  anger  and  dangerous  irascibility,  we 
often  meet  with  fair  skins  and  physical  natures  of  the 
same  apparent  tranquillity.  These  pale  men,  rather 
stout,  with  somewhat  dim  and  hazy  eyes  either  green 
or  blue,  are  the  worst  species  of  humanity  in  Provence; 
and  Charles-Marie-Theodose  de  la  Peyrade  presents  a 
fine  type  of  that  race,  the  constitution  of  which  deserves 
careful  examination  on  the  part  of  medical  science  and 
philosophical  physiology.  There  rises,  at  times,  within 
such  men,  a  species  of  bile, —  a  bitter  gall,  which  flies  to 
their  head  and  makes  them  capable  of  ferocious  actions, 
done  apparently,  in  cold  blood.  Being  the  result  of  an 
inward  intoxication,  this  sort  of  dumb  violence  seems  to 
be  irreconcilable  with  their  quasi-lymphatic  outward  man, 
and  the  tranquillity  of  their  benignant  glance. 

Born  in  the  neighborhood  of  Avignon,  the  young 
Provencal  whose  name  we  have  just  mentioned  was  of 
middle  height,  well-proportioned,  and  rather  stout;  the 
tone  of  his  skin  had  no  brilliancy ;  it  was  neither  livid 
nor  dead-white,  nor  colored,  but  gelatinous,  —  that  word 
can  alone  give  a  true  idea  of  the  flabby,  hueless  envelope, 
beneath  which  were  concealed  nerves  that  were  less  visr- 


54  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

orous  than  capable  of  enormous  resistance  at  certain 
given  moments.  His  eyes,  of  a  pale  cold  blue,  expressed 
in  their  ordinary  condition  a  species  of  deceptive  sad- 
ness, which  must  have  had  great  charms  for  women. 
The  forehead,  finely  cut,  was  not  without  dignity,  and  it 
harmonized  well  with  the  soft,  light  chestnut  hair  curling 
naturally,  but  slightly,  at  its  tips.  The  nose,  precisely 
like  that  of  a  hunting  dog,  flat  and  furrowed  at  the  tip, 
inquisitive,  intelligent,  searching,  always  on  the  scent, 
instead  of  expressing  good-humor,  was  ironical  and 
mocking;  but  this  particular  aspect  of  his  nature  never 
showed  itself  openly;  the  young  man  must  have 
ceased  to  watch  himself,  he  must  have  flown  into  fury 
before  the  power  came  to  him  to  flash  out  the  sarcasm 
and  the  wit  which  embittered,  tenfold,  his  infernal 
humor.  The  mouth,  the  curving  lines  and  pomegranate- 
colored  lips  of  which  were  very  pleasing,  seemed  the 
admirable  instrument  of  an  organ  that  was  almost  sweet 
in  its  middle  tones,  where  its  owner  usually  kept  it, 
but  which,  in  its  higher  key,  vibrated  on  the  ear  like  the 
sound  of  a  gong.  This  falsetto  was  the  voice  of  his 
nerves  and  his  anger.  His  face,  kept  expressionless  by 
an  inward  command,  was  oval  in  form.  His  manners, 
in  harmony  with  the  sacerdotal  calmness  of  the  face, 
were  reserved  and  conventional;  but  he  had  supple, 
pliant  ways  which,  though  they  never  descended  to 
wheedling,  were  not  lacking  in  seduction;  although  as 
soon  as  his  back  was  turned  their  charm  seemed  inex- 
plicable. Charm,  when  it  takes  its  rise  in  the  heart, 
leaves  deep  and  lasting  traces;  that  which  is  merely  a 
product  of  art,  or  of  eloquence,  has  only  a  passing  power; 
it  produces  its  immediate  effect,  and  that  is  all.  But  how 
many  philosophers  are  there  in  life  who  are  able  to  dis- 
tinguish the  difference?  Almost  always  the  trick  is 
played  (to  use  a  popular  expression)  before  the  ordinary 
run  of  men  have  perceived  its  methods. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  55 

Everything  about  this  young  man  of  twenty-seven  was 
in  harmony  with  his  character;  he  obeyed  his  vocation 
by  cultivating  philanthropy, —  the  only  expression  which 
explains  the  philanthropist.  Theodose  loved  the  People, 
for  he  limited  his  love  for  humanity.  Like  the  horticul- 
turist who  devotes  himself  to  roses,  or  dahlias,  or  heart's- 
ease,  or  geraniums,  and  pays  no  attention  to  the  plants 
his  fancy  has  not  selected,  so  this  young  La  Rochefou- 
cauld-Liancourt  gave  himself  to  the  workingmen,  the 
proletariat  and  the  paupers  of  the  faubourgs  Saint- 
Jacques  and  Saint-Marceau.  The  strong  man,  the  man 
of  genius  at  bay,  the  worthy  poor  of  the  bourgeois  class, 
he  cut  them  off  from  the  bosom  of  his  charity.  The  heart 
of  all  persons  with  a  mania  is  like  those  boxes  with  com- 
partments, in  which  sugarplums  are  kept  in  sorts :  suum 
cuique  tribuere  is  their  motto ;  they  measure  to  each  duty 
its  dose.  There  are  some  philanthropists  who  pity  noth- 
ing but  the  man  condemned  to  death.  Vanity  is  cer- 
tainly the  basis  of  philanthropy;  but  in  the  case  of  this 
Provencal  it  was  calculation,  a  predetermined  course,  a 
"liberal  "  and  democratic  hypocrisy,  played  with  a  per- 
fection that  no  other  actor  will  ever  attain. 

Theodose  did  not  attack  the  rich;  he  contented  him- 
self with  not  understanding  them;  he  endured  them; 
every  one,  in  his  opinion,  ought  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his 
labor.  He  had  been,  he  said,  a  fervent  disciple  of  Saint- 
Simon,  but  that  mistake  must  be  attributed  to  his  youth: 
modern  society  could  have  no  other  basis  than  heredity. 
An  ardent  Catholic,  like  all  men  from  the  Comtat,  he 
went  to  the  earliest  morning  mass,  and  thus  concealed 
his  piety.  Like  other  philanthropists,  he  practised  a 
sordid  economy,  and  gave  to  the  poor  his  time,  his  legal 
advice,  his  eloquence,  and  such  money  as  he  extracted 
for  them  from  the  rich.  His  clothes,  always  of  black 
cloth,  were  worn- until  the  seams  became  white.  Nature 
had  done  a  great  deal  for  Theodose  in  not  giving  him 


56  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

that  fine  manly  Southern  beauty  which  creates  in  others 
an  imaginary  expectation,  to  which  it  is  more  thai)  <li Hi- 
cult  for  a  man  to  respond.  As  it  was,  he  could  be  what 
suited  him  at  the  moment,  —  an  agreeable  man  or  a  very 
ordinary  one.  Never,  since  his  admission  to  the 
Thuilliers',  had  he  ventured,  until  this  evening,  to 
raise  his  voice  and  speak  as  dogmatically  as  he  had 
risked  doing  to  Olivier  Vinet;  but  perhaps  Theodose  de 
la  Peyrade  was  not  sorry  to  seize  the  opportunity  to 
come  out  from  the  shade  in  which  he  had  hitherto  kept 
himself.  Besides,  it  was  necessary  to  get  rid  of  the 
young  substitute,  just  as  the  Minards  had  previously 
ruined  the  hopes  of  Monsieur  Godeschal.  Like  all 
superior  men  (for  he  certainly  had  some  superiority), 
Vinet  had  never  lowered'  himself  to  the  point  where  the 
threads  of  these  bourgeois  spider-webs  became  visible  to 
him,  and  he  had  therefore  plunged,  like  a  fly,  headfore- 
most, into  the  almost  invisible  trap  to  which  Theodose 
inveigled  him. 

To  complete  this  portrait  of  the  poor  man's  lawyer  we 
must  here  relate  the  circumstances  of  his  first  arrival  at 
the  Thuilliers'. 

Theodose  came  to  lodge  in  Mademoiselle  Thuillier's 
house  toward  the  close  of  the  year  1837.  He  had  taken 
his  degree  about  five  years  earlier,  and  had  kept  the 
proper  number  of  terms  to  become  a  barrister.  Circum- 
stances, however,  about  which  he  said  nothing,  had 
interfered  to  prevent  his  being  called  to  the  bar;  he 
was,  therefore,  still  a  licentiate.  But  soon  after  he  was 
installed  in  the  little  apartment  on  the  third  floor,  with 
the  furniture  rigorously  required  by  all  members  of  his 
noble  profession,  — for  the  guild  of  barristers  admits  no 
brother  unless  he  has  a  suitable  study,  a  legal  library, 
and  can  thus,  as  it  were,  verify  his  claims,  —  Theodose 
de  la  Peyrade  began  to  practise  as  a  barrister  before  the 
Royal  Court  of  Paris. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  57 

The  whole  of  the  year  1838  was  employed  in  making 
this  change  in  his  condition,  and  he  led  a  most  regular 
life.  He  studied  at  home  in  the  mornings  till  dinner- 
time, going  sometimes  to  the  Palais  for  important  cases. 
Having  become  very  intimate  with  Dutocq  (so  Dutocq 
said),  he  did  certain  services  to  the  poor  of  the  faubourg 
Saint-Jacques  who  were  brought  to  his  notice  by  that 
official.  He  pleaded  their  cases  before  the  court,  after 
bringing  them  to  the  notice  of  the  attorneys,  who,  accord- 
ing to  the  statutes  of  their  order,  are  obliged  to  take 
turns  in  doing  business  for  the  poor.  As  Theodose  was 
careful  to  plead  only  safe  cases,  he  won  them  all.  Those 
persons  whom  he  thus  obliged  expressed  their  gratitude 
and  their  admiration,  in  spite  of  the  young  lawyer's 
admonitions,  among  their  own  class,  and  to  the  porters 
of  private  houses,  through  whom  many  anecdotes  rose  to 
the  ears  of  the  proprietors.  Delighted  to  have  in  their 
house  a  tenant  so  worthy  and  so  charitable,  the  Thuilliers 
wished  to  attract  him  to  their  salon,  and  they  questioned 
Dutocq  about  him.  The  mayor's  clerk  replied  as  the 
envious  reply;  while  doing  justice  to  the  young  man  he 
dwelt  on  his  remarkable  avarice,  which  might,  however, 
be  the  effect  of  poverty. 

"I  have  had  other  information  about  him.  He  belongs 
to  the  Peyrades,  an  old  family  of  the  comtat  of  Avignon ; 
he  came  here  toward  the  end  of  1829,  to  inquire  about 
an  uncle  whose  fortune  was  said  to  be  considerable ;  he 
discovered  the  address  of  the  old  man  only  three  days 
before  his  death;  and  the  furniture  of  the  deceased  merely 
sufficed  to  bury  him  and  pay  his  debts.  A  friend  of  this 
useless  uncle  gave  a  couple  of  hundred  louis  to  the  poor 
fortune-hunter,  advising  him  to  finish  his  legal  studies  and 
enter  the  judiciary  career.  Those  two  hundred  louis  sup- 
ported him  for  three  years  in  Paris,  where  he  lived  like  an 
anchorite.  But  being  unable  to  discover  his  unknown 
friend  and  benefactor,   the  poor  student  was  in  abject 


58  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

distress  in  1833.  He  worked  then,  like  so  many  other 
licentiates,  in  politics  and  literature,  by  which  he  kept 
himself  for  a  time  above  want  —  for  he  had  nothing  to 
expect  from  his  family.  His  father,  the  youngest  brother 
of  the  dead  uncle,  has  eleven  other  children,  who  live  on 
a  small  estate  called  Les  Canquoelles.  He  finally  ob- 
tained a  place  on  a  ministerial  newspaper,  the  manager 
of  which  was  the  famous  Cerizet,  so  celebrated  for  the  per- 
secutions he  met  with,  under  the  Restoration,  on  account  of 
his  attachment  to  the  liberals,  —  a  man  whom  the  new  Left 
will  never  forgive  for  having  made  his  paper  ministerial. 
As  the  government  of  these  days  does  very  little  to  pro- 
tect even  its  most  devoted  servants  (witness  the  Gisquet 
affair),  the  republicans  have  ended  by  ruining  Cerizet. 
I  tell  you  this  to  explain  how  it  is  that  Cerizet  is  now  a 
copying  clerk  in  my  office.  Well,  in  the  days  when  he 
flourished  as  managing  editor  of  a  paper  directed  by  the 
Perier  ministry  against  the  incendiary  journals,  the 
4  Tribune  '  and  others,  Cerizet,  who  is  a  worthy  fellow 
after  all,  though  he  is  too  fond  of  women,  pleasure,  and 
good  living,  was  very  useful  to  Theodose,  who  edited  the 
political  department  of  the  paper;  and  if  it  hadn't  been 
for  the  death  of  Casimir  Perier  that  young  man  would 
certainly  have  received  an  appointment  as  substitute 
judge  in  Paris.  As  it  was,  he  dropped  back  in  1834-35, 
in  spite  of  his  talent ;  for  his  connection  with  a  minis- 
terial journal  of  course  did  him  harm.  'If  it  had  not 
been  for  my  religious  principles,'  he  said  to  me,  'I 
should  have  thrown  myself  into  the  Seine.'  However, 
it  seems  that  the  friend  of  his  uncle  must  have  heard  of 
his  distress,  for  again  he  sent  him  a  sum  of  money; 
enough  to  complete  his  terms  for  the  bar;  but,  strange 
to  say,  he  has  never  known  the  name  or  the  address  of 
this  mysterious  benefactor.  After  all,  perhaps,  under 
such  circumstances,  his  economy  is  excusable,  and  he 
must  have  great  strength  of  mind  to  refuse  what  the  poor 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  59 

devils  whose  cases  he  wins  by  his  devotion  offer  him. 
He  is  indignant  at  the  way  other  lawyers  speculate  on 
the  possibility  or  impossibility  of  poor  creatures,  unjustly 
sued,  paying  for  the  costs  of  their  defence.  Oh!  he  '11 
succeed  in  the  end.  I  should  n't  be  surprised  to  see  that 
fellow  in  some  very  brilliant  position;  he  has  tenacit}^, 
honesty,  and  courage.     He  studies,  he  delves." 

Notwithstanding  the  favor  with  which  he  was  greeted, 
la  Peyrade  went  discreetly  to  the  Thuilliers'.  When 
reproached  for  this  reserve  he  went  oftener,  and  ended 
by  appearing  every  Sunday ;  he  was  invited  to  all  din- 
ner-parties, and  became  at  last  so  familiar  in  the  house 
that  whenever  he  came  to  see  Thuillier  about  four 
o'clock  he  was  always  requested  to  take  "pot-luck" 
without  ceremony.  Mademoiselle  Thuillier  used  to 
say:  — 

"Then  we  know  that  he  will  get  a  good  dinner,  poor 
fellow!" 

A  social  phenomenon  which  has  certainly  been  ob- 
served, but  never,  as  yet,  formulated,  or,  if  you  like  it 
better,  published,  though  it  fully  deserves  to  be  recorded, 
is  the  return  of  habits,  mind,  and  manners  to  primitive 
conditions  in  certain  persons  who,  between  youth  and 
old  age,  have  raised  themselves  above  their  first  estate. 
Thus  Thuillier  had  become,  once  more,  morally  speaking, 
the  son  of  a  concierge.  He  now  made  use  of  many  of. 
his  father's  jokes,  and  a  little  of  the  slime  of  early  days 
was  beginning  to  appear  on  the  surface  of  his  declining 
life.  About  five  or  six  times  a  month,  when  the  soup 
was  rich  and  good  he  would  deposit  his  spoon  in  his 
empty  plate  and  say,  as  if  the  proposition  were  entirely 
novel :  — 

"That 's  better  than  a  kick  on  the  shin-bone! " 

On  hearing  that  witticism  for  the  first  time  Theodose, 
to  whom  it  was  really  new,  laughed  so  heartily  that  the 
handsome  Thuillier  was  tickled  in  his  vanity  as  he  had 


60  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

never  been  before.  After  that,  Theodose  greeted  the 
same  speech  with  a  knowing  little  smile.  This  slight 
detail  will  explain  how  it  was  that  on  the  morning  of  the 
day  when  Theodose  had  his  passage  at  arms  with  Vinet 
he  had  said  to  Thuillier,  as  they  were  walking  in  the 
garden  to  see  the  effect  of  a  frost :  — 

"You  have  much  more  wit  than  you  give  yourself 
credit  for." 

To  which  he  received  this  answer:  — 

"  In  any  other  career,  my  dear  Theodose,  I  should  have 
made  my  way  nobly ;  but  the  fall  of  the  Emperor  broke 
my  neck." 

u There  is  still  time,"  said  the  young  lawyer.  "In  the 
first  place,  what  did  that  mountebank,  Colleville,  ever 
do  to  get  the  cross  ?  "     * 

There  la  Peyrade  laid  his  finger  on  a  sore  wound 
which  Thuillier  hid  from  every  eye  so  carefully  that 
even  his  sister  did  not  know  of  it;  but  the  young  man, 
interested  in  studying  these  bourgeois,  had  divined  the 
secret  envy  that  gnawed  the  heart  of  the  ex-official. 

"If  you,  experienced  as  you  are,  will  do  me  the  honor 
to  follow  my  advice,"  added  the  philanthropist,  "and, 
above  all,  not  mention  our  compact  to  any  one,  I  will 
undertake  to  have  you  decorated  with  the  Legion  of 
honor,  to  the  applause  of  the  whole  quarter." 

"Oh!  if  we  succeed  in  that,"  cried  Thuillier,  "you 
don't  know  what  I  would  do  for  you." 

This  explains  why  Thuillier  carried  his  head  high 
when  Theodose  had  the  audacity  that  evening  to  put 
opinions  into  his  mouth. 

In  art  —  and  perhaps  Moliere  has  placed  hypocrisy  in 
the  rank  of  art  by  classing  Tartuffe  forever  among  come- 
dians—  there  exists  a  point  of  perfection  to  which 
genius  alone  attains;  mere  talent  falls  below  it.  There 
is  so  little  difference  between  a  work  of  genius  and  a 
work  of  talent,  that  only  men  of  genius  can  appreciate 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  61 

the  distance  that  separates  Raffaelle  from  Correggio, 
Titian  from  Rubens.  More  than  that:  common  minds 
are  easily  deceived  on  this  point.  The  sign  of  genius 
is  a  certain  appearance  of  facility.  In  fact,  its  work 
must  appear,  at  first  sight,  ordinary,  so  natural  is  it, 
even  on  the  highest  subjects.  Many  peasant-women  hold 
their  children  as  the  famous  Madonna  in  the  Dresden 
gallery  holds  hers.  Well,  the  height  of  art  in  a  man  of 
la  Peyrade's  force  was  to  oblige  others  to  say  of  him 
later:  "Everybody  would  have  been  taken  in  by  him." 

Now,  in  the  salon  Thuillier,  he  noted  a  dawning  oppo- 
sition; he  perceived  in  Colleville  the  somewhat  clear- 
sighted and  criticising  nature  of  an  artist  who  has 
missed  his  vocation.  The  barrister  felt  himself  dis- 
pleasing to  Colleville,  who  (as  the  result  of  circum- 
stances not  necessary  to  here  report)  considered  himself 
justified  in  believing  in  the  science  of  anagrams.  None 
of  his  anagrams  had  ever  failed.  The  clerks  in  the 
government  office  had  laughed  at  him  when,  demanding 
an  anagram  on  the  name  of  the  poor  helpless  Auguste- 
Jean-Francois  Minard,  he  had  produced,  JPamassai  une 
si  grande  fortune  ;  and  the  event  had  justified  him  after 
the  lapse  of  ten  years !  TliQodose,  on  several  occasions, 
had  made  advances  to  the  jovial  secretary  of  the  mayor's 
office,  and  had  felt  himself  rebuffed  by  a  coldness  which 
was  not  natural  in  so  sociable  a  man.  When  the  game 
of  bouillotte  came  to  an  end,  Colleville  seized  the  moment 
to  draw  Thuillier  into  the  recess  of  a  window  and  say  to 
him:  — 

"You  are  letting  that  lawyer  get  too  much  foothold  in 
your  house;  he  kept  the  ball  in  his  own  hands  all  the 
evening." 

"Thank  you,  my  friend;  forewarned  is  forearmed," 
replied  Thuillier,  inwardly  scoffing  at  Colleville. 

Theodose,  who  was  talking  at  the  moment  to  Madame 
Colleville,  had  his  eye  on  the  two  men,  and,  with  the 


62  The  Leaser  Bourgeoisie. 

same  prescience  by  which  women  know  when  and  how 
they  are  spoken  of,  he  perceived  that  Colleville  was 
trying  to  injure  him  in  the  mind  of  the  weak  and  silly 
Thuillier.  "Madame,"  he  said  in  Flavie's  ear,  "if  any 
one  here  is  capable  of  appreciating  you  it  is  certainly  I. 
You  seem  to  me  a  pearl  dropped  into  the  mire.  You 
say  you  are  forty-two,  but  a  woman  is  no  older  than  she 
looks,  and  many  women  of  thirty  would  be  thankful  to 
have  your  figure  and  that  noble  countenance,  where  love 
has  passed  without  ever  filling  the  void  in  your  heart. 
You  have  given  yourself  to  God,  I  know,  and  I  have  too 
much  religion  myself  to  regret  it,  but  I  also  know  that 
you  have  done  so  because  no  human  being  has  proved 
worthy  of  you.  You  have  been  loved,  but  you  have 
never  been  adored  —  I  have  divined  that.  There  is  your 
husband,  who  has  not  known  how  to  place  you  in  a 
position  in  keeping  with  your  deserts.  He  dislikes  me, 
as  if  he  thought  I  loved  you ;  and  he  prevents  me  from 
telling  you  of  a  way  that  I  think  I  have  found  to  place 
you  in  the  sphere  for  which  you  were  destined.  No, 
madame,"  he  continued,  rising,  "the  Abbe  Gondrin  will 
not  preach  this  year  through  Lent  at  our  humble  Saint- 
Jacques  du  Haut-Pas;  the  preacher  will  be  Monsieur 
d'Estival,  a  compatriot  of  mine,  and  you  will  hear  in 
him  one  of  the  most  impressive  speakers  that  I  have 
ever  known, —  a  priest  whose  outward  appearance  is  not 
agreeable,  but,  oh !  what  a  soul !  " 

"Then  my  desire  will  be  gratified,"  said  poor  Madame 
Thuillier.  "I  have  never  yet  been  able  to  understand  a 
famous  preacher." 

A  smile  flickered  on  the  lips  of  Mademoiselle  Thuillier 
and  several  others  who  heard  the  remark. 

"They  devote  themselves  too  much  to  theological 
demonstration,"  said  Theodose.  "I  have  long  thought 
so  myself  —  but  I  never  talk  religion;  if  it  had  not  been 
for  Madame  de  Colleville,  I  —  " 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie,  63 

"Are  there  demonstrations  'in  theology?"  asked  the 
professor  of  mathematics,  naively,  plunging  headlong 
into  the  conversation. 

"I  think,  monsieur,"  replied  Theodose,  looking  straight 
at  Felix* Phellion,  "that  you  cannot  be  serious  in  asking 
me  such  a  question." 

"Felix,"  said  old  Phellion,  coming  heavily  to  the 
rescue  of  his  son,  and  catching  a  distressed  look  on 
the  pale  face  of  Madame  Thuillier, — "Felix  separates 
religion  into  two  categories;  he  considers  it  from  the 
human  point  of  view  and  the  divine  point  of  view,  — 
tradition  and  reason." 

"That  is  heresy,  monsieur,"  replied  Theodose.  "Re- 
ligion is  one;  it  requires,  above  all  things,  faith." 

Old  Phellion,  nonplussed  by  that  remark,  nodded  to 
his  wife:  — 

"It  is  getting  late,  my  dear,"  and  he  pointed  to  the 
clock. 

"Oh,  Monsieur  Felix,"  said  Celeste  in  a  whisper  to 
the  candid  mathematician,  "Couldn't  you  be,  like  Pascal 
and  Bossuet,  learned  and  pious  both  ?  " 

The  Phellions,  on  departing,  carried  the  Collevilles 
with  them.  Soon  no  one  remained  in  the  salon  but 
Dutocq,  Theodose,   and  the  Thuilliers. 

The  flattery  administered  by  Theodose  to  Flavie  seems 
at  first  sight  coarsely  commonplace,  but  we  must  here 
remark,  in  the  interests  of  this  history,  that  the  barrister 
was  keeping  himself  as  close  as  possible  to  these  vulgar 
minds;  he  was  navigating  their  waters;  he  spoke  their 
language.  His  painter  was  Pierre  Grassou,  and  not 
Joseph  Bridau ;  his  book  was  "Paul  and  Virginia."  The 
greatest  living  poet  for  him  was  Casimir  de  la  Vigne;  to 
his  eyes  the  mission  of  art  was,  above  all  things,  utility. 
Parmentier,  the  discoverer  of  the  potato,  was  greater  to 
him  than  thirty  Raffaelles;  the  man  in  the  blue  cloak 
seemed  to  him  a  sister  of  charity.     These  were  Thuillier' s 


64  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

expressions,  and  The'odose  remembered  them   all  —  on 
occasion. 

"That  young  Felix  Phelliou,"  he  now  remarked,  "is 
precisely  the  academical  man  of  our  day;  the  product 
of  knowledge  which  sends  God  to  the  rear.  Heavens, 
what  are  we  coming  to?  Religion  alone  can  save  France ; 
nothing  but  the  fear  of  hell  will  preserve  us  from  domes- 
tic robbery,  which  is  going  on  at  all  hours  in  the  bosom 
of  families,  and  eating  into  the  surest  fortunes.  All  of 
you  have  a  secret  warfare  in  your  homes." 

After  this  shrewd  tirade,  which  made  a  great  impres- 
sion upon  Brigitte,  he  retired,  followed  by  Dutocq,  after 
wishing  good  evening  to  the  three  Thuilliers. 

"That  young  man  has  great  capacity,"  said  Thuillier, 
sententiously. 

"Yes,  that  he  has,"  replied  Brigitte,  extinguishing 
the  lamps. 

"He  has  religion,"  said  Madame  Thuillier,  as  she  left 
the  room. 

"Monsieur,"  Phellion  was  saying  to  Colleville  as  they 
came  abreast  of  the  Ecole  de  Mines,  looking  about  him 
to  see  that  no  one  was  near,  "it  is  usually  my  custom  to 
submit  my  insight  to  that  of  others,  but  it  is  impossible 
for  me  not  to  think  that  that  young  lawyer  plays  the 
master  at  our  friend  Thuilliers." 

"My  own  opinion,"  said  Colleville,  who  was  walking 
with  Phellion  behind  his  wife,  Madame  Phellion,  and 
Celeste,  "is  that  he  's  a  Jesuit;  and  I  don't  like  Jesuits; 
the  best  of  them  are  no  good.  To  my  mind  a  Jesuit 
means  knavery,  and  knavery  for  knavery's  sake;  they 
deceive  for  the  pleasure  of  deceiving,  and,  as  the  saying 
is,  to  keep  their  hand  in.  That  's  my  opinion,  and  I 
don't  mince  it." 

"I  understand  you,  monsieur,"  said  Phellion,  who  was 
arm-in-arm  with  Colleville. 
"No,  Monsieur  Phellion,"  remarked  Flavie  in  a  shrill 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  65 

voice,  "you  don't  understand  Colleville;  but  I  know 
what  he  means,  and  I  think  he  had  better  stop  saying  it. 
Such  subjects  are  not  to  be  talked  of  in  the  street,  at 
eleven  o'clock  at  night,  and  before  a  young  lady." 

"You  are  right,  wife,"  said  Colleville. 

When  they  reached  the  rue  des  Deux-Eglises,  which 
Phellion  was  to  take,  they  all  stopped  to  say  good-night, 
and  Felix  Phellion,  who  was  bringing  up  the  rear,  said 
to  Colleville:  — 

"Monsieur,  your  son  Francois  could  enter  the  ^cole 
Polytechnique  if  he  were  well  coached ;  I  propose  to  you 
to  fit  him  to  pass  the  examinations  this  year." 

"That 's  an  offer  not  to  be  refused!  Thank  you,  my 
friend,"  said  Colleville.     "We  '11  see  about  it." 

"Good! "  said  Phellion  to  his  son,  as  they  walked  on. 

"Not  a  bad  stroke!  "  said  the  mother. 

"What  do  you  mean  by  that?  "  asked  Felix. 

1 '  You  are  very  cleverly  paying  court  to  Celeste's  parents." 

"May  I  never  find  the  solution  of  my  problem  if  I 
even  thought  of  it!  "  cried  the  young  professor.  "I  dis- 
covered, when  talking  with  the  little  Collevilles,  that 
Francois  has  a  strong  turn  for  mathematics,  and  I 
thought  I  ought  to  enlighten  his  father." 

"Good,  my  son!"  repeated  Phellion.  "I  wouldn't 
have  you  otherwise.  My  prayers  are  granted!  I  have 
a  son  whose  honor,  probity,  and  private  and  civic  virtues 
are  all  that  I  could  wish." 

Madame  Colleville,  as  soon  as  Celeste  had  gone  to 
bed,  said  to  her  husband :  — 

"Colleville,  don't  utter  those  blunt  opinions  about 
people  without  knowing  something  about  them.  When 
you  talk  of  Jesuits  I  know  you  mean  priests ;  and  I  wish 
you  would  do  me  the  kindness  to  keep  your  opinions  on 
religion  to  yourself  when  you  are  in  company  with  your 
daughter.  We  may  sacrifice  our  own  souls,  but  not  the 
eouls  of  our  children.     You  don't  want  Celeste  to  be  a 

5 


66  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

creature  without  religion?  And  remember,  my  dear, 
that  we  are  at  the  mercy  of  others ;  we  have  four  chil- 
dren to  provide  for;  and  how  do  you  know  that,  some 
day  or  other,  you  may  not  need  the  services  of  this  one 
or  that  one?  Therefore  don't  make  enemies.  You 
haven't  any  now,  for  you  are  a  good-natured  fellow; 
and,  thanks  to  that  quality,  which  amounts  in  you  to  a 
charm,  we  have  got  along  pretty  well  in  life,  so  far." 

"That's  enough!"  said  Colleville,  flinging  his  coat 
on  a  chair  and  pulling  off  his  cravat.  "I  'm  wrong,  and 
you  are  right,  my  beautiful  Flavie." 

"And  on  the  next  occasion,  my  dear  old  sheep,"  said 
the  sly  creature,  tapping  her  husband's  cheek,  "you 
must  try  to  be  polite  to  that  young  lawyer;  he  is  a 
schemer  and  we  had  better  have  him  on  our  side.  He  is 
playing  comedy  —  well!  play  comedy  with  him;  be  his 
dupe  apparently;  if  he  proves  to  have  talent,  if  he  has 
a  future  before  him,  make  a  friend  of  him.  Do  you 
think  I  want  to  see  you  forever  in  the  mayor's  office?" 

"Come,  wife  Colleville,"  said  the  former  clarionet,  tap- 
ping his  knee  to  indicate  the  place  he  wished  his  wife  to 
take.  "Let  us  warm  our  toes  and  talk.  — When  I  look 
at  you  I  am  more  than  ever  convinced  that  the  youth  of 
women  is  in  their  figure." 

"And  in  their  heart." 

"Well,  both,"  assented  Colleville;  "waist  slender, 
heart  solid  —  " 

"No,  you  old  stupid,  deep." 

"What  is  good  about  you  is  that  you  have  kept  your 
fairness  without  growing  fat.  But  the  fact  is,  you  have 
such  tiny  bones.  Flavie,  it  is  a  fact  that  if  I  had  life 
to  live  over  again  I  should  n't  wish  for  any  other  wife 
than  you." 

"You  know  very  well  I  have  always  preferred  you  to 
others.  How  unlucky  that  monseigneur  is  dead!  Do 
you  know  what  I  covet  for  you?" 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  67 

"No;  what?" 

"Some  office  at  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  —  an  office  worth 
twelve  thousand  francs  a  year;  cashier,  or  something 
of  that  kind;  either  there,  or  at  Poissy,  in  the  muni- 
cipal department;  or  else  as  manufacturer  of  musical 
instruments  —  " 

"Any  one  of  them  would  suit  me." 

"Well,  then!  if  that  queer  barrister  has  power,  and 
he  certainly  has  plenty  of  intrigue,  let  us  manage  him. 
I'll  sound  him;  leave  me  to  do  the  thing  —  and,  above 
all,  don't  thwart  his  game  at  the  Thuilliers'." 

Theodose  had  laid  his  finger  on  a  sore  spot  in  Flavie 
Colleville's  heart;  and  this  requires  an  explanation, 
which  may,  perhaps,  have  the  value  of  a  synthetic  glance 
at  woman's  life. 

At  forty  years  of  age  a  woman,  above  all,  if  she  has 
tasted  the  poisoned  apple  of  passion,  undergoes  a  solemn 
shock ;  she  sees  two  deaths  before  her :  that  of  the  body 
and  that  of  the  heart.  Dividing  women  into  two  great 
categories  which  respond  to  the  common  ideas,  and  call- 
ing them  either  virtuous  or  guilty,  it  is  allowable  to  say 
that  after  that  fatal  period  they  both  suffer  pangs  of 
terrible  intensity.  If  virtuous,  and  disappointed  in  the 
deepest  hopes  of  their  nature  —  whether  they  have  had 
the  courage  to  submit,  whether  they  have  buried  their 
revolt  in  their  hearts  or  at  the  foot  of  the  altar  —  they 
never  admit  to  themselves  that  all  is  over  for  them  with- 
out horror.  That  thought  has  such  strange  and  diabol- 
ical depths  that  in  it  lies  the  reason  of  some  of  those 
apostasies  which  have,  at  times,  amazed  the  world  and 
horrified  it.  If  guilty,  women  of  that  age  fall  into  one 
of  several  delirious  conditions  which  often  turn,  alas!  to 
madness,  or  end  in  suicide,  or  terminate  in  some  wild 
passion  greater  than  the  situation  itself. 

The  following  is  the  dllemmatic  meaning  of  this  crisis: 
Either  they  have  known  happiness,  known   it  in   a  vir- 


68  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

tuous  life,  and  are  unable  to  breathe  in  any  air  but  that 
surcharged  with  incense,  or  act  in  any  but  a  balmy 
atmosphere  of  flattery  and  worship,  —  if  so,  how  is  it 
possible  to  renounce  it?  —  or,  by  a  phenomenon  less  rare 
than  singular,  they  have  found  only  wearying  pleasures 
while  seeking  for  the  happiness  that  escaped  them  — 
sustained  in  that  eager  chase  by  the  irritating  satisfac- 
tions of  vanity,  clinging  to  the  game  like  a  gambler  to 
his  double  or  quits ;  for  to  them  these  last  days  of  beauty 
are  their  last  stake  against  despair. 

"You  have  been  loved,  but  never  adored." 

That  speech  of  Theodose,  accompanied  by  a  look 
which  read,  not  into  her  heart,  but  into  her  life,  was  the 
key-note  to  her  enigma,  and  Flavie  felt  herself  divined. 

The  lawyer  had  merely  repeated  ideas  which  literature 
has  rendered  trivial;  but  what  matter  where  the  whip 
comes  from,  or  how  it  is  made,  if  it  touches  the  sensi- 
tive spot  of  a  horse's  hide?  The  emotion  was  in  Flavie, 
not  in  the  speech,  just  as  the  noise  is  not  in  the  ava- 
lanche, though  it  produces  it. 

A  young  officer,  two  fops,  a  banker,  a  clumsy  youth, 
and  Colleville,  were  poor  attempts  at  happiness.  Once 
in  her  life  Madame  Colleville  had  dreamed  of  it,  but 
never  attained  it.  Death  had  hastened  to  put  an  end  to 
the  only  passion  in  which  she  had  found  a  charm.  For 
the  last  two  years  she  had  listened  to  the  voice  of  religion, 
which  told  her  that  neither  the  Church,  nor  its  votaries, 
should  talk  of  love  or  happiness,  but  of  duty  and  resig- 
nation; that  the  only  happiness  lay  in  the  satisfaction  of 
fulfilling  painful  and  costly  duties,  the  rewards  for  which 
were  not  in  this  world.  All  the  same,  however,  she  was 
conscious  of  another  clamoring  voice;  but,  inasmuch  as 
her  religion  was  only  a  mask  which  it  suited  her  to  wear, 
and  not  a  conversion,  she  did  not  lay  it  aside,  thinking 
it  a  resource.  Believing  also  that  piety,  false  or  true, 
was  a   becoming  manner  in  which  to  meet   her  future, 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  69 

she  continued  in  the  Church,  as  though  it  were  the  cross- 
roads of  a  forest,  where,  seated  on  a  bench,  she  read  the 
sign-posts,  and  waited  for  some  lucky  chance;  feeling 
all  the  while  that  night  was  coming  on. 

Thus  it  happened  that  her  interest  was  keenly  excited 
when  Theodose  put  her  secret  condition  of  mind  into 
words,  seeming  to  promise  her  the  realization  of  her 
castle  in  the  air,  already  built  and  overthrown  some  six 
or  eight  times. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  winter  she  had  noticed  that 
Theodose  was  examining  and  studying  her,  though  cau- 
tiously and  secretly.  More  than  once,  she  had  put  on 
her  gray  moire  silk  with  its  black  lace,  and  her  head- 
dress of  Mechlin  with  a  few  flowers,  in  order  to  appear 
to  her  best  advantage ;  and  men  know  very  well  when  a 
toilet  has  been  made  to  please  them.  The  old  beau  of 
the  Empire,  that  handsome  Thuillier,  overwhelmed  her 
with  compliments,  assuring  her  she  was  queen  of  the 
salon,  but  la  Peyrade  said  infinitely  more  to  the  purpose 
by  a  look. 

Flavie  had  expected,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  a  declara- 
tion, saying  to  herself  at  times :  — 

"He  knows  I  am  ruined  and  haven't  a  sou.  Perhaps 
he  is  really  pious." 

Theodose  did  nothing  rashly;  like  a  wise  musician,  he 
had  marked  the  place  in  his  symphony  where  he  intended 
to  tap  his  drum.  When  he  saw  Colleville  attempting 
to  warn  Thuillier  against  him,  he  fired  his  broadside, 
cleverly  prepared  during  the  three  or  four  months  in 
which  he  had  been  studying  Flavie;  he  now  succeeded 
with  her  as  he  had,  earlier  in  the  day,  succeeded  with 
Thuillier. 

While  getting  into  bed,  Theodose  said  to  himself :  — 

uThe  wife  is  on  my  side;  the  husband  can't  endure 
me ;  they  are  now  quarrelling ;  and  I  shall  get  the  better 
of  it,  for  she  does  what  she  likes  with  that  man." 


70  The  Lester  Bourgeoisie. 

The  lawyer  was  mistaken  in  one  thing:  there  was  no 
dispute  whatever,  and  Colleville  was  sleeping  peacefully 
beside  his  dear  little  Flavie,  while  she  was  saying  to 
herself  i  — 

"Certainly  The'odose  must  be  a  superior  man." 

Many  men,  like  la  Peyrade,  derive  their  superiority 
from  the  audacity,  or  the  difficulty,  of  an  enterprise;  the 
strength  they  display  increases  their  muscular  power, 
and  they  spend  it  freely.  Then  when  success  is  won,  or 
defeat  is  met,  the  public  is  astonished  to  find  how  small, 
exhausted,  and  puny  those  men  really  are.  After  cast- 
ing into  the  minds  of  the  two  persons  on  whom  Celeste's 
fate  chiefly  depended,  an  interest  and  curiosity  that  were 
almost  feverish,  The'odose  pretended  to  be  a  very  busy 
man ;  for  five  or  six  days  he  was  out  of  the  house  from 
morning  till  night,  in  order  not  to  meet  Flavie  until  the 
time  when  her  interest  should  increase  to  the  point  of 
overstepping  conventionality,  and  also  in  order  to  force 
the  handsome  Thuillier  to  come  and  fetch  him. 

The  following  Sunday  he  felt  certain  he  should  find 
Madame  Colleville  at  church ;  he  was  not  mistaken,  for 
they  came  out,  each  of  them,  at  the  same  moment,  and 
met  at  the  corner  of  the  rue  des  Deux-£glises.  The'odose 
offered  his  arm,  which  Flavie  accepted,  leaving  her 
daughter  to  walk  in  front  with  her  brother  Anatole. 
This  youngest  child,  then  about  twelve  years  old,  being 
destined  for  the  seminary,  was  now  at  the  Barniol  insti- 
tute, where  he  obtained  an  elementary  education ;  Barniol, 
the  son-in-law  of  the  Phellions,  was  naturally  making 
the  tuition  fees  light,  with  a  view  to  the  hoped-for  alli- 
ance between  Felix  and  Celeste. 

"Have  you  done  me  the  honor  and  favor  of  thinking 
over  what  I  said  to  you  so  badly  the  other  day  ?  "  asked 
the  lawyer,  in  a  caressing  tone,  pressing  the  lady's  arm 
to  his  heart  with  a  movement  both  soft  and  strong ;  for 
he  seemed  to  wish  to  restrain  himself  and  appear  respect- 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie,  71 

ful,  in  spite  of  his  evident  eagerness.  "Do  not  mis- 
understand my  intentions,"  be  continued,  after  receiving 
from  Madame  Colleville  one  of  tbose  looks  which  women 
trained  to  the  management  of  passion  know  how  to  give, 
—  a  look  that,  by  mere  expression,  can  convey  both 
severe  rebuke  and  secret  community  of  sentiment.  "I 
love  you  as  we  love  a  noble  nature  struggling  against 
misfortune;  Christian  charity  enfolds  both  the  strong 
and  the  weak;  its  treasures  belong  to  both.  Refined, 
graceful,  elegant  as  you  are,  made  to  be  an  ornament  of 
the  highest  society,  what  man  could  see  you  without  feel- 
ing an  immense  compassion  in  his  heart  —  buried  here 
among  these  odious  bourgeois,  who  know  nothing  of 
you,  not  even  the  aristocratic  value  of  a  single  one  of 
your  attitudes,  or  those  enchanting  inflections  of  your 
voice !  Ah !  if  I  were  only  rich !  if  I  had  power !  your 
husband,  who  is  certainly  a  good  fellow,  should  be  made 
receiver-general,  and  you  yourself  could  get  him  elected 
deputy.  But,  alas!  poor  ambitious  man,  my  first  duty 
is  to  silence  my  ambition.  Knowing  myself  at  the 
bottom  of  the  bag  like  the  last  number  in  a  family 
lottery,  I  can  only  offer  you  my  arm  and  not  my  heart. 
I  hope  all  from  a  good  marriage,  and,  believe  me,  I  shall 
make  my  wife  not  only  happy,  but  I  shall  make  her  one 
of  the  first  in  the  land,  receiving  from  her  the  means  of 
success.  It  is  so  fine  a  day,  will  you  not  take  a  turn 
in  the  Luxembourg  ? "  he  added,  as  they  reached  the  rue 
d'Enfer  at  the  corner  of  Colleville's  house,  opposite  to 
which  was  a  passage  leading  to  the  gardens  by  the  stair- 
way of  a  little  building,  the  last  remains  of  the  famous 
convent  of  the  Chartreux. 

The  soft  yielding  of  the  arm  within  his  own,  indicated 
a  tacit  consent  to  this  proposal,  and  as  Flavie  deserved 
the  honor  of  a  sort  of  enthusiasm,  he  drew  her  vehe- 
mently along,  exclaiming :  — 

"  Come !  we  may  never  have  so  good  a  moment  —    But 


72  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

see!"  he  added,  "there  is  your  husband  at  the  window 
looking  at  us;  let  us  walk  slowly." 

uYou  have  nothing  to  fear  from  Monsieur  Colleville," 
said  Flavie,  smiling;  "he  leaves  me  mistress  of  my  own 
actions." 

"Ah!  here,  indeed,  is  the  woman  I  have  dreamed  of," 
cried  the  Provencal,  with  that  ecstasy  that  inflames  the 
soul  only,  and  in  tones  that  issue  only  from  Southern 
lips.  "Pardon  me,  madame,"  he  said,  recovering  him- 
self, and  returning  from  an  upper  sphere  to  the  exiled 
angel  whom  he  looked  at  piously, —  "pardon  me,  I  aban- 
don what  I  was  saying ;  but  how  can  a  man  help  feel- 
ing for  the  sorrows  he  has  known  himself  when  he  sees 
them  the  lot  of  a  being  to  whom  life  should  bring  only 
joy  and  happiness?  Your  sufferings  are  mine;  I  am  no 
more  in  my  right  place  than  you  are  in  yours ;  the  same 
misfortune  has  made  us  brother  and  sister.  Ah!  dear 
Flavie,  the  first  day  it  was  granted  to  me  to  see  you  — 
the  last  Sunday  in  September,  1838  —  you  were  very 
beautiful;  I  shall  often  recall  you  to  memory  in  that 
pretty  little  gown  of  mousseline-de-laine  of  the  color 
of  some  Scottish  tartan!  That  day  I  said  to  myself: 
4  Why  is  that  woman  so  often  at  the  Thuiliers' ;  above  all, 
why  did  she  ever  have  intimate  relations  with  Thuillier 
himself?  —  " 

"Monsieur! "  said  Flavie,  alarmed  at  the  singular 
course  la  Peyrade  was  giving  to  the  conversation. 

"Eh!  I  know  all,"  he  cried,  accompanying  the  words 
with  a  shrug  of  his  shoulders.  "I  explain  it  all  to  my 
own  mind,  and  I  do  not  respect  you  less.  You  now 
have  to  gather  the  fruits  of  your  sin,  and  I  will  help 
you.  Celeste  will  be  very  rich,  and  in  that  lies  your 
own  future.  You  can  have  only  one  son-in-law;  choose 
him  wisely.  An  ambitious  man  might  become  a  min- 
ister, but  you  would  humble  your  daughter  and  make  her 
miserable ;  and  if  such  a  man  lost  his  place  and  fortune 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  73 

he  could  never  recover  it.  Yes,  I  love  you,"  he  con- 
tinued. "I  love  you  with  an  unlimited  affection;  you 
are  far  above  the  mass  of  petty  considerations  in  which 
silly  women  entangle  themselves.  Let  us  understand 
each  other." 

Flavie  was  bewildered;  she  was,  however,  awake  to 
the  extreme  frankness  of  such  language,  and  she  said 
to  herself,  "He  is  not  a  secret  manoeuvrer,  certainly." 
Moreover,  she  admitted  to  her  own  mind  that  no  one  had 
ever  so  deeply  stirred  and  excited  her  as  this  young 
man. 

"Monsieur,"  she  said,  "I  do  not  know  who  could  have 
put  into  your  mind  so  great  an  error  as  to  my  life,  nor 
by  what  right  you  —  " 

"Ah!  pardon  me,  madame,"  interrupted  the  ProvenQal 
with  a  coolness  that  smacked  of  contempt.  "I  must 
have  dreamed  it.  I  said  to  myself,  '  She  is  all  that!  ' 
But  I  see  I  was  judging  from  the  outside.  I  know  now 
why  you  are  living  and  will  always  live  on  a  fourth  floor 
in  the  rue  d'Enfer." 

And  he  pointed  his  speech  with  an  energetic  gesture 
toward  the  Colleville  windows,  which  could  be  seen 
through  the  passage  from  the  alley  of  the  Luxembourg, 
where  they  were  walking  alone,  in  that  immense  tract 
trodden  by  so  many  and  various  young  ambitions. 

"I  have  been  frank,  and  I  expected  reciprocity," 
resumed  Theodose.  "I  myself  have  had  days  without 
food,  madame;  I  have  managed  to  live,  pursue  my 
studies,  obtain  my  degree,  with  two  thousand  francs  for 
my  sole  dependence;  and  I  entered  Paris  through  the 
Barriere  d'ltalie,  with  five  hundred  francs  in  my  pocket, 
firmly  resolved,  like  one  of  my  compatriots,  to  become, 
some  day,  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  our  country.  The 
man  who  has  often  picked  his  food  from  baskets  of 
scraps  where  the  restaurateurs  put  their  refuse,  which  are 
emptied  at  six  o'clock  every  morning  —  that  man  is  not 


74  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

likely  to  recoil  before  any  means,  —  avowable,  of  course. 
Well,  do  you  think  me  the  friend  of  the  people?"  he 
said,  smiling.  "One  has  to  have  a  speaking-trumpet  to 
reach  the  ear  of  Fame;  she  does  n't  listen  if  you  speak 
with  your  lips;  and  without  fame  of  what  use  is  talent? 
The  poor  man's  advocate  means  to  be  some  day  the 
advocate  of  the  rich.  Is  that  plain  speaking?  Don't  I 
open  mj  Inmost  being  to  you  ?  Then  open  your  heart  to 
me.  Say  to  me,  *  Let  us  be  friends,'  and  the  day  will 
come  when  we  shall  both  be  happy." 

"Good  heavens!  why  did  I  ever  come  here?  Why  did 
I  ever  take  your  arm  ?  "  cried  Flavie. 

"Because  it  is  in  your  destiny,"  he  replied.  "Ah! 
my  dear,  beloved  Flavie,"  he  added,  again  pressing  her 
arm  upon  his  heart,  "did  you  expect  to  hear  the  vul- 
garities of  love  from  me?  We  are  brother  and  sister; 
that  is  all." 

And  he  led  her  towards  the  passage  to  return  to  the 
rue  d'Enfer. 

Flavie  felt  a  sort  of  terror  in  the  depths  of  the  content- 
ment which  all  women  find  in  violent  emotions ;  and  she 
took  that  terror  for  the  sort  of  fear  which  a  new  passion 
always  excites;  but  for  all  that,  she  felt  she  was  fas- 
cinated, and  she  walked  along  in  absolute  silence. 

"What  are  you  thinking  of?"  asked  Theodose,  when 
they  reached  the  middle  of  the  passage. 

"Of  what  you  have  just  said  to  me,"  she  answered. 

"At  our  age,"  he  said,  "it  is  best  to  suppress  prelim- 
inaries; we  are  not  children;  we  both  belong  to  a  sphere 
in  which  we  should  understand  each  other.  Remember 
this,"  he  added,  as  they  reached  the  rue  d'Enfer,  — "I 
am  wholly  yours." 

So  saying,  he  bowed  low  to  her. 

"The  iron's  in  the  fire  now!"  he.  thought  to  himself 
as  he  watched  his  giddy  prey  on  her  way  home. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  75 


VI. 


A    KEYNOTE. 


When  Theodose  reached  home  he  found,  waiting  for 
him  on  the  landing,  a  personage  who  is,  as  it  were, 
the  submarine  current  of  this  history ;  he  will  be  found 
within  it  like  some  buried  church  on  which  has  risen  the 
facade  of  a  palace.  The  sight  of  this  man,  who,  after 
vainly  ringing  at  la  Peyrade's  door,  was  now  trying  that 
of  Dutocq,  made  the  Provencal  barrister  tremble  —  but 
secretly,  within  himself,  not  betraying  externally  his 
inward  emotion.  This  man  was  Cerizet,  whom  Dutocq 
had  mentioned  to  Thuillier  as  his  copying-clerk. 

Cerizet  was  only  thirty-eight  years  old,  but  he  looked 
a  man  of  fifty,  so  aged  had  he  become  from  causes 
which  age  all  men.  His  hairless  head  had  a  yellow 
skull,  ill-covered  by  a  rusty,  discolored  wig;  the  mask 
of  his  face,  pale,  flabby,  and  unnaturally  rough,  seemed 
the  more  horrible  because  the  nose  was  eaten  away, 
though  not  sufficiently  to  admit  of  its  being  replaced  by 
a  false  one.  From  the  spring  of  this  nose  at  the  fore- 
head, down  to  the  nostrils,  it  remained  as  nature  had 
made  it;  but  disease,  after  gnawing  away  the  sides  near 
the  extremities,  had  left  two  holes  of  fantastic  shape, 
which  vitiated  pronunciation  and  hampered  speech.  The 
eyes,  originally  handsome,  but  weakened  by  misery  of 
all  kinds  and  by  sleepless  nights,  were  red  around  the 
edges,  and  deeply  sunken ;  the  glance  of  those  eyes,  when 
the  soul  sent  into  them  an  expression  of  malignancy, 
would  have  frightened  both  judges  and  criminals,  or 
any  others  whom  nothing  usually  affrights. 


76  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

The  mouth,  toothless  except  for  a  few  black  fangs, 
was  threatening ;  the  saliva  made  a  foam  within  it,  which 
did  not,  however,  pass  the  pale  thin  lips.  Cerizet,  a 
short  man,  less  spare  than  shrunken,  endeavored  to 
remedy  the  defects  of  his  person  by  his  clothes,  and 
although  his  garments  were  not  those  of  opulence,  he 
kept  them  in  a  condition  of  neatness  which  may  even 
have  increased  his  forlorn  appearance.  Everything  about 
him  seemed  dubious;  his  age,  his  nose,  his  glance  in- 
spired doubt.  It  was  impossible  to  know  if  he  were 
thirty-eight  or  sixty;  if  his  faded  blue  trousers,  which 
fitted  him  well,  were  of  a  coming  or  a  past  fashion. 
His  boots,  worn  at  the  heels,  but  scrupulously  blacked, 
resoled  for  the  third  time,  and  very  choice,  originally, 
may  have  trodden  in  their  day  a  ministerial  carpet.  The 
frock  coat,  soaked  by  many  a  down-pour,  with  its  bran- 
debourgs,  the  frogs  of  which  were  indiscreet  enough  to 
show  their  skeletons,  testified  by  its  cut  to  departed  ele- 
gance. The  satin  stock-cravat  fortunately  concealed  the 
shirt,  but  the  tongue  of  the  buckle  behind  the  neck  had 
frayed  the  satin,  which  was  re-satined,  that  is,  re- 
polished,  by  a  species  of  oil  distilled  from  the  wig.  In 
the  days  of  its  youth  the  waistcoat  was  not,  of  course, 
without  freshness,  but  it  was  one  of  those  waistcoats, 
bought  for  four  francs,  which  come  from  the  hooks  of 
the  ready-made  clothing  dealer.  All  these  things  were 
carefully  brushed,  and  so  was  the  shiny  and  misshapen  hat. 
They  harmonized  with  each  other,  even  to  the  black  gloves 
which  covered  the  hands  of  this  subaltern  Mephistopheles, 
whose  whole  anterior  life  may  be  summed  up  in  a  single 
phrase :  — 

He  was  an  artist  in  evil,  with  whom,  from  the  first, 
evil  had  succeeded;  a  man  misled  by  these  early  suc- 
cesses to  continue  the  plotting  of  infamous  deeds  within 
the  lines  of  strict  legality.  Becoming  the  head  of  a 
printing-office  by  betraying  his  master  [see  "Lost  Illu- 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  77 

sions  "],  he  had  afterwards  been  condemned  to  imprison- 
ment as  editor  of  a  liberal  newspaper.  In  the  provinces, 
under  the  Restoration,  he  became  the  bete  noire  of  the 
government,  and  was  called  "that  unfortunate  Cerizet" 
by  some,  as  people  spoke  of  "  the  unfortunate  Chauvet " 
and  "the  heroic  Mercier."  He  owed  to  this  reputation  of 
persecuted  patriotism  a  place  as  sub-prefect  in  1830.  Six 
months  later  he  was  dismissed;  but  he  insisted  that  he 
was  judged  without  being  heard;  and  he  made  so  much 
talk  about  it  that,  under  the  ministry  of  Casimir  Perier, 
he  became  the  editor  of  an  anti-republican  newspaper  in 
the  pay  of  the  government.  He  left  that  position  to  go 
into  business,  one  phase  of  which  was  the  most  nefari- 
ous stock-company  that  ever  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
correctional  police.  Cerizet  proudly  accepted  the  severe 
sentence  he  received ;  declaring  it  to  be  a  revengeful  plot 
on  the  part  of  the  republicans,  who,  he  said,  would  never 
forgive  him  for  the  hard  blows  he  had  dealt  them  in  his 
journal.  He  spent  the  time  of  his  imprisonment  in  a 
hospital.  The  government  by  this  time  were  ashamed 
of  a  man  whose  almost  infamous  habits  and  shameful 
business  transactions,  carried  on  in  company  with  a 
former  banker,  named  Claparon,  led  him  at  last  into 
well-deserved  public  contempt. 

Cerizet,  thus  fallen,  step  by  step,  to  the  lowest  rung 
of  the  social  ladder,  had  recourse  to  pity  in  order  to 
obtain  the  place  of  copying  clerk  in  Dutocq's  office.  In 
the  depths  of  his  wretchedness  the  man  still  dreamed  of 
revenge,  and,  as  he  had  nothing  to  lose,  he  employed  all 
means  to  that  end.  Dutocq  and  himself  were  bound 
together  in  depravity.  Cerizet  was  to  Dutocq  what  the 
hound  is  to  the  huntsman.  Knowing  himself  the  neces- 
sities of  poverty  and  wretchedness,  he  set  up  that  busi- 
ness of  gutter  usury  called,  in  popular  parlance,  "the 
loan  by  the  little  week."  He  began  this  at  first  by  help 
of  Dutocq,  who  shared  the  profits;    but,  at  the  present 


78  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

moment  this  man  of  many  legal  crimes,  now  the  banker 
of  fishwives,  the  money-lender  of  costermongers,  wus 
the  gnawing  rodent  of  the  whole  faubourg. 

"Well,"  said  Cerizet,  as  Dutocq  opened  his  door, 
"Theodose  has  just  come  in;  let  us  go  to  his  room." 

The  advocate  of  the  poor  was  fain  to  allow  the  two 
men  to  pass  before  him. 

All  three  crossed  a  little  room,  the  tiled  floor  of  which, 
covered  with  a  coating  of  red  encaustic,  shone  in  the 
light;  thence  into  a  little  salon  with  crimson  curtains 
and  mahogany  furniture,  covered  with  red  Utrecht  vel- 
vet; the  wall  opposite  the  window  being  occupied  by 
book-shelves  containing  a  legal  library.  The  chimney- 
piece  was  covered  with  vulgar  ornaments,  a  clock  witn 
four  columns  in  mahogany,  and  candelabra  under  glass 
shades.  The  study,  where  the  three  men  seated  them- 
selves before  a  soft-coal  fire,  was  the  study  of  a  lawyer 
just  beginning  to  practise.  The  furniture  consisted  of 
a  desk,  an  armchair,  little  curtains  of  green  silk  at  the 
windows,  a  green  carpet,  shelves  for  lawyers'  boxes,  and 
a  couch,  above  which  hung  an  ivory  Christ  on  a  velvet 
background.  The  bedroom,  kitchen,  and  rest  of  the 
apartment  looked  out  upon  the  courtyard. 

"Well,"  said  Cerizet,  "how  are  things  going?  Are 
we  getting  on?" 

"Yes,"  replied  Theodose. 

"You  must  admit,"  cried  Dutocq,  "that  my  idea  was 
a  famous  one,  in  laying  hold  of  that  imbecile  of  a 
Thuillier?" 

"Yes,  but  I'm  not  behindhand  either,"  exclaimed 
Cerizet.  "I  have  come  now  to  show  you  a  way  to  put 
the  thumbscrews  on  the  old  maid  and  make  her  spin  like 
a  teetotum.  We  must  n't  deceive  ourselves ;  Mademoiselle 
Thuillier  is  the  head  and  front  of  everything  in  this 
affair ;  if  we  get  her  on  our  side  the  town  is  won.  Let 
us    say  little,  but   that   little  to  the  point,  as  becomes 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  79 

strong  men  with  each  other.  Claparon,  you  know,  is  a 
foolj  he  '11  be  all  his  life  what  he  always  was,  —  a  cat's- 
paw.  Just  now  he  is  lending  his  name  to  a  notary  in 
Paris,  who  is  concerned  with  a  lot  of  contractors,  and 
they  are  all  —  notary  and  masons  —  on  the  point  of  ruin. 
Claparon  is  going  headlong  into  it.  He  never  yet  was 
bankrupt;  but  there's  a  first  time  for  everything.  He 
is  hidden  now  in  my  hovel  in  the  rue  des  Poules,  where 
no  one  will  ever  find  him.  He  is  desperate,  and  he 
has  n't  a  penny.  Now,  among  the  five  or  six  houses 
built  by  these  contractors,  which  have  to  be  sold,  there 's 
a  jewel  of  a  house,  built  of  freestone,  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  Madeleine,  —  a  frontage  laced  like  a  melon, 
with  beautiful  carvings,  —  but  not  being  finished,  it  will 
have  to  be  sold  for  what  it  will  bring;  certainly  not 
more  than  a  hundred  thousand  francs.  By  spending 
twenty-five  thousand  francs  upon  it  it  could  be  let, 
undoubtedly,  for  ten  thousand.  Make  Mademoiselle 
Thuillier  the  proprietor  of  that  house  and  you  '11  win  her 
love;  she'll  believe  that  you  can  put  such  chances  in  her 
way  every  year.  There  are  two  ways  of  getting  hold  of 
vain  people :  flatter  their  vanity,  or  threaten  them ;  and 
there  are  also  two  ways  of  managing  misers:  fill  their 
purse,  or  else  attack  it.  Now,  this  stroke  of  business, 
while  it  does  good  to  Mademoiselle  Thuillier,  does  good 
to  us  as  well,  and  it  would  be  a  pity  not  to  profit  by  the 
chance." 

"But  why  does  the  notary  let  it  slip  through  his 
fingers?"  asked  Dutocq. 

"The  notary,  my  dear  fellow!  Why,  he's  the  very 
one  who  saves  us.  Forced  to  sell  his  practice,  and 
utterly  ruined  besides,  he  reserved  for  himself  this 
crumb  of  the  cake.  Believing  in  the  honesty  of  that 
idiot  Claparon,  he  has  asked  him  to  find  a  dummy  pur- 
chaser. We  '11  let  him  suppose  that  Mademoiselle 
Thuillier   is  a  worthy   soul  who  allows  Claparon  to  use 


80  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

her  name ;  they  '11  both  be  fooled,  Claparon  and  the 
notary  too.  I  owe  this  little  trick  to  my  friend  Claparon, 
who  left  me  to  bear  the  whole  weight  of  the  trouble  about 
his  stock-company,  in  which  we  were  tricked  by  Couture, 
and  I  hope  you  may  never  be  in  that  man's  skin!"  he 
added,  infernal  hatred  flashing  from  his  worn  and 
withered  eyes.  "Now,  1  've  said  my  say,  gentlemen," 
he  continued,  sending  out  his  voice  through  his  nasal 
holes,  and  taking  a  dramatic  attitude ;  for  once,  at  a  mo- 
ment of  extreme  penury,  he  had  gone  upon  the  stage. 

As  he  finished  making  his  proposition  some  one  rang 
at  the  outer  door,  and  la  Peyrade  rose  to  go  and  open 
it.  As  soon  as  his  back  was  turned,  Cerizet  said, 
hastily,  to  Dutocq :  — 

"Are  you  sure  of  him?  I  see  a  sort  of  air  about 
him —     And  I 'm  a  good  judge  of  treachery." 

"He  is  so  completely  in  our  power,"  said  Dutocq,  "that 
I  don't  trouble  myself  to  watch;  but,  between  ourselves, 
I  did  n't  think  him  as  strong  as  he  proves  to  be.  The 
fact  is,  we  thought  we  were  putting  a  barb  between 
the  legs  of  a  man  who  did  n't  know  how  to  ride,  and  the 
rogue  is  an  old  jockey!" 

"Let  him  take  care,"  growled  Cerizet.  "I  can  blow 
him  down  like  a  house  of  cards  any  day.  As  for  you, 
papa  Dutocq,  you  are  able  to  see  him  at  work  all  the 
time;  watch  him  carefully.  Besides,  I'll  feel  his  pulse 
by  getting  Claparon  to  propose  to  him  to  get  rid  of  us ; 
that  will  help  us  to  judge  him." 

"Pretty  good,  that!  "  said  Dutocq.  "You  are  daring, 
anyhow." 

"I  've  got  my  hand  in,  that's  all,"  replied  Cerizet. 

These  words  were  exchanged  in  a  low  voice  during  the 
time  that  it  took  Theodose  to  go  to  the  outer  door  and 
return.  Cerizet  was  looking  at  the  books  when  the 
lawyer  re-entered  the  room. 

"It  is  Thuillier,"   said  Theodose.     "I  thought  he'd 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  81 

come;  he   is   in   the  salon.     He  mustn't  see  Cerizet's 
frock-coat;  those  frogs  would  frighten  him." 

"Pooh!  you  receive  the  poor  in  your  office,  don't  you? 
That 's  in  your  rdle.  Do  you  want  any  money?  "  added 
Cerizet,  pulling  a  hundred  francs  out  of  his  trousers' 
pocket.     "There  it  is;  it  won't  look  amiss." 

And  he  laid  the  pile  on  the  chimney-piece. 

"And  now,"  said  Dutocq,  "we  had  better  get  out 
through  the  bedroom." 

"Well,  good-bye,"  said  Theodose,  opening  a  hidden 
door  which  communicated  from  the  study  to  the  bed- 
room. "Come  in,  Monsieur  Thuillier,"  he  called  out  to 
the  beau  of  the  Empire. 

When  he  saw  him  safely  in  the  study  he  went  to  let 
out  his  two  associates  through  the  bedroom  and  kitchen 
into  the  courtyard. 

"In  six  months,"  said  Cerizet,  "you  '11  have  married 
Celeste  and  got  your  foot  in  the  stirrup.  You  are  lucky, 
you  are,  not  to  have  sat,  like  me,  in  the  prisoners'  dock. 
I've  been  there  twice:  once  in  1825,  for  'subversive 
articles '  which  I  never  wrote,  and  the  second  time  for 
receiving  the  profits  of  a  joint-stock  company  which  had 
slipped  through  my  fingers!  Come,  let's  warm  this 
thing  up !  Sac-a-papier !  Dutocq  and  I  are  sorely  in 
need  of  that  twenty-five  thousand  francs.  Good  courage, 
old  fellow!  "  he  added,  holding  out  his  hand  to  Theodose, 
and  making  the  grasp  a  test  of  faithfulness. 

The  Provencal  gave  Cerizet  his  right  hand,  pressing 
the  other's  hand  warmly:  — 

"My  good  fellow,"  he  said,  "be  very  sure  that  in 
whatever  position  I  may  find  myself  I  shall  never  forget 
that  from  which  you  have  drawn  me  by  putting  me  in 
the  saddle  here.  I'm  simply  your  bait;  but  you  are 
giving  me  the  best  part  of  the  catch,  and  I  should  be 
more  infamous  than  a  galley-slave  who  turns  policeman 
if  I  didn't  play  fair." 


82  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

As  soon  as  the  door  was  closed,  Ce'rizet  peeped 
through  the  key-hole,  trying  to  catch  sight  of  laPeyrade's 
face.  But  the  Provencal  had  turned  back  to  meet 
Thuillier,  and  his  distrustful  associate  could  not  detect 
the  expression  of  his  countenance. 

That  expression  was  neither  disgust  nor  annoyance,  it 
was  simply  joy,  appearing  on  a  face  that  now  seemed 
freed.  Theodose  saw  the  means  of  success  approaching 
him,  and  he  flattered  himself  that  the  day  would  come 
when  he  might  get  rid  of  his  ignoble  associates,  to  whom 
he  owed  everything.  Poverty  has  unfathomable  depths, 
especially  in  Paris,  slimy  bottoms,  from  which,  when  a 
drowned  man  rises  to  the  surface  of  the  water,  he  brings 
with  him  filth  and  impurity  clinging  to  his  clothes,  or  to 
his  person.  Cerizet,  the  once  opulent  friend  and  pro- 
tector of  Theodose,  was  the  muddy  mire  still  clinging  to 
the  ProvenQal,  and  the  former  manager  of  the  joint-stock 
company  saw  very  plainly  that  his  tool  wanted  to  brush 
himself  on  entering  a  sphere  where  decent  clothing  was 
a  necessity. 

"Well,  my  dear  Theodose,"  began  Thuillier,  "we  have 
hoped  to  see  you  every  day  this  week,  and  every  evening 
we  find  our  hopes  deceived.  As  this  is  our  Sunday  for 
a  dinner,  my  sister  and  my  wife  have  sent  me  here  to 
beg  you  to  come  to  us." 

"I  have  been  so  busy,"  said  Theodose,  "that  I  have 
not  had  two  minutes  to  give  to  any  one,  not  even  to  you, 
whom  I  count  among  my  friends,  and  with  whom  I  have 
wanted  to  talk  about  —  " 

"What?  have  you  really  been  thinking  seriously  over 
what  you  said  to  me?"  cried  Thuillier,  interrupting 
Theodose. 

"If  you  had  not  come  here  now  for  a  full  understand- 
ing, I  should  n't  respect  you  as  I  do,"  replied  la  Peyrade, 
smiling.  "You  have  been  a  sub-director,  and  therefore 
you   must    have   the   remains   of    ambition  —  which   is 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  83 

deucedly  legitimate  in  your  case!  Come,  now,  between 
ourselves,  when  one  sees  a  Minard,  that  gilded  pot,  dis- 
playing himself  at  the  Tuileries,  and  complimenting  the 
king,  and  a  Popinot  about  to  become  a  minister  of  State, 
and  then  look  at  you!  a  man  trained  to  administrative 
work,  a  man  with  thirty  years'  experience,  who  has  seen 
six  governments,  left  to  plant  balsams  in  a  little  garden! 
Heavens  and  earth !  —  I  am  frank,  my  dear  Thuillier, 
and  I  '11  say,  honestly,  that  I  want  to  advance  you,  be- 
cause you  '11  draw  me  after  you.  Well,  here  's  my  plan. 
We  are  soon  to  elect  a  member  of  the  council-general 
from  this  arrondissement;  and  that  member  must  be  you. 
And,"  he  added,  dwelling  on  the  word,  "it  will  be  you! 
After  that,  you  will  certainly  be  deputy  from  the  arron- 
dissement when  the  Chamber  is  re-elected,  which  must 
surely  be  before  long.  The  votes  that  elect  you  to  the 
municipal  council  will  stand  by  you  in  the  election  for 
deputy,  trust  me  for  that. " 

"But  how  will  you  manage  all  this?  "  cried  Thuillier, 
fascinated. 

"You  shall  know  in  good  time;  but  you  must  let  me 
conduct  this  long  and  difficult  affair ;  if  you  commit  the 
slightest  indiscretion  as  to  what  is  said,  or  planned,  or 
agreed  between  us,  I  shall  have  to  drop  the  whole 
matter,  and  good-bye  to  you ! " 

"Oh!  you  can  rely  on  the  absolute  dumbness  of  a 
former  sub-director;  I've  had  secrets  to  keep." 

"That's  all  very  well;  but  these  are  secrets  to  keep 
from  your  wife  and  sister,  and  from  Monsieur  and 
Madame  Colleville." 

"Not  a  muscle  of  my  face  shall  reveal  them,"  said 
Thuillier,  assuming  a  stolid  air. 

"Very  good,"  continued  Theodose.  "I  shall  test  you. 
In  order  to  make  yourself  eligible,  you  must  pay  taxes 
on  a  certain  amount  of  property,  and  you  are  not  paying 
them." 


84  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"I  beg  your  pardon;  I'm  all  right  for  the  munici- 
pal council  at  any  rate;  I  pay  two  francs  ninety-six 
centimes." 

"Yes,  but  the  tax  on  property  necessary  for  election 
to  the  Chamber  is  five  hundred  francs,  and  there  is  no 
time  to  lose  in  acquiring  that  property,  because  you  must 
prove  possession  for  one  year." 

"The  devil!  "  cried  Thuillier;  "between  now  and  a  year 
hence  to  be  taxed  five  hundred  francs  on  property  which  —  " 

"  Between  now  and  the  end  of  July,  at  the  latest,  you 
must  pay  that  tax.  Well,  I  feel  enough  interest  in  you 
to  tell  you  the  secret  of  an  affair  by  which  you  might 
make  from  thirty  to  forty  thousand  francs  a  year,  by 
employing  a  capital  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
at  most.  I  know  that  in  your  family  it  is  your  sister 
who  does  your  business ;  I  am  far  from  thinking  that  a 
mistake;  she  has,  they  tell  me,  excellent  judgment;  and 
you  must  let  me  begin  by  obtaining  her  good-will  and 
friendship,  and  proposing  this  investment  to  her.  And 
this  is  why:  If  Mademoiselle  Thuillier  is  not  induced  to 
put  faith  in  my  plan,  we  shall  certainly  have  difficulty 
with  her.  Besides,  it  won't  do  for  you  to  propose  to  her 
that  she  should  put  the  investment  of  her  money  in  your 
name.  The  idea  had  better  come  from  me.  As  to  my 
means  of  getting  you  elected  to  the  municipal  council, 
they  are  these:  Phellion  controls  one  quarter  ,of  the 
votes  of  the  arrondissement ;  he  and  Laudigeois  have 
lived  in  it  these  thirty  years,  and  they  are  listened  to 
like  oracles.  I  have  a  friend  who  controls  another 
quarter;  and  the  rector  of  Saint-Jacques,  who  is  not 
without  influence,  thanks  to  his  virtues,  disposes  of 
certain  votes.  Dutocq,  in  his  close  relation  to  the 
people,  and  also  the  justice  of  peace,  will  help  me,  above 
all,  as  I'm  not  acting  for  myself;  and  Colleville,  as 
secretary  of  the  mayor's  office,  can  certainly  manage  to 
obtain  another  fourth  of  the  votes." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  85 

"You  are  right!  "  cried  Thuillier.     "  I  'm  elected!  " 

"Do  you  think  so?"  said  la  Peyrade,iu  a  voice  of  the 
sharpest  sarcasm.  "Very  good!  then  go  and  ask  your 
friend  Colleville  to  help  you,  and  see  what  he  '11  say. 
No  triumph  in  election  cases  is  ever  brought  about  by 
the  candidate  himself,  but  by  his  friends.  He  should 
never  ask  anything  himself  for  himself;  he  must  be 
invited  to  accept,  and  appear  to  be  without  ambition." 

"La  Peyrade!"  cried  Thuillier,  rising,  and  taking  the 
hand  of  the  young  lawyer,  "you  are  a  very  capable  man." 

"Not  as  capable  as  you,  but  I  have  my  merits,"  said 
the  ProvenQal,  smiling. 

"If  we  succeed  how  shall  I  ever  repay  you?  "  asked 
Thuillier,  naively. 

"Ah!  that,  indeed!  I  am  afraid  you  will  think  me 
impertinent;  but  remember,  there  is  a  true  feeling  in  my 
heart  which  offers  some  excuse  for  me;  in  fact,  it  has 
given  me  the  spirit  to  undertake  this  affair.  I  love  — 
and  I  take  you  for  my  confidant." 

"But  who  is  it?  "  said  Thuillier. 

"Your  dear  little  Celeste,"  replied  la  Peyrade.  "My 
love  for  her  will  be  a  pledge  to  you  of  my  devotion. 
What  would  I  not  do  for  a  father-in-law!  This  is  pure 
selfishness ;  I  shall  be  working  for  myself. " 

"Hush!"  cried  Thuillier. 

"Eh,  my  friend!"  said  la  Peyrade,  catching  Thuillier 
round  the  body;  "if  I  hadn't  Flavie  on  my  side,  and  if 
I  did  n't  know  all,  should  I  venture  to  be  talking  to  you 
thus?  But  please  say  nothing  to  Flavie  about  this; 
wait  till  she  speaks  to  you.  Listen  to  me;  I'm  of  the 
metal  that  makes  ministers;  I  do  not  seek  to  obtain 
Celeste  until  I  deserve  her.  You  shall  not  be  asked  to 
give  her  to  me  until  the  day  when  your  election  as  a 
deputy  of  Paris  is  assured.  In  order  to  be  deputy  of 
Paris,  we  must  get  the  better  of  Minard ;  and  in  order 
to  crush  Minard,  you  must  keep  in  your  own  hands  all 


86  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

your  means  of  influence;  for  that  reason  use  Celeste  as 
a  hope;  we'll  play  them  off,  these  people,  against  each 
other,  and  fool  them  all  —  Madame  Colleville  and  you 
and  I  will  be  persons  of  importance  one  of  these  days. 
Don't  think  me  mercenary.  I  want  Celeste  without  a 
dot,  with  nothing  more  than  her  future  expectations. 
To  live  in  your  family  with  you,  to  keep  my  wife  in 
your  midst,  that  is  my  desire.  You  see  now  that  I  have 
no  hidden  thoughts.  As  for  you,  my  dear  friend,  six 
months  after  your  election  to  the  municipal  council,  you 
will  have  the  cross  of  the  Legion  of  honor,  and  when  you 
are  deputy  you  will  be  made  an  officer  of  it.  As  for 
your  speeches  in  the  Chamber  —  well!  we  '11  write  them 
together.  Perhaps  it  would  be  desirable  for  you  to  write 
a  book,  —  a  serious  book  on  matters  half  moral  and 
philanthropic,  half  political;  such,  for  instance,  as 
charitable  institutions  considered  from  the  highest  stand- 
point; or  reforms  in  the  pawning  system,  the  abuses  of 
which  are  really  frightful.  Let  us  fasten  some  slight 
distinction  to  your  name ;  it  will  help  you,  —  especially 
in  the  arrondissement.  Now,  I  say  again,  trust  me, 
believe  in  me;  do  not  think  of  taking  me  into  your 
family  until  you  have  the  ribbon  in  your  buttonhole  on 
the  morrow  of  the  day  when  you  take  your  seat  in  the 
Chamber.  I  '11  do  more  than  that,  however;  I  '11  put  you 
in  the  way  of  making  forty  thousand  francs  a  year." 

"For  any  one  of  those  three  things  you  shall  have  our 
Celeste,"  said  Thuillier. 

4 'Ah!  what  a  pearl  she  is!"  exclaimed  la  Peyrade, 
raising  his  eyes  to  heaven.  "I  have  the  weakness  to 
pray  to  God  for  her  every  day.  She  is  charming;  she 
is  exactly  like  you  —  oh!  nonsense;  surely  you  needn't 
caution  me!  Dutocq  told  me  all.  Well,  I'll  be  with 
you  to-night.  I  must  go  to  the  Phellions'  now,  and 
begin  to  work  our  plan.  You  don't  need  me  to  caution 
you  not  to  let  it  be  known  that  you  are  thinking  of  me 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  87 

for  Cdleste;  if  you  do,  you  '11  cut  off  my  arms  and  legs. 
Therefore,  silence !  even  to  Flavie.  Wait  till  she  speaks 
to  you  herself.  Phellion  shall  to-night  broach  the  matter 
of  proposing  you  as  candidate  for  the  council." 

"To-night?"  said  Thuillier. 

"Yes,  to-night,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  "unless  I  don't 
find  him  at  home  now." 

Thuillier  departed,  saying  to  himself :  — 

"That's  a  very  superior  man;  we  shall  always  under- 
stand each  other.  Faith!  it  might  be  hard  to  do  better 
for  Celeste.  They  will  live  with  us,  in  our  own  family, 
and  that 's  a  good  deal!  Yes,  he  's  a  fine  fellow,  a  souud 
man." 

To  minds  of  Thuillier's  calibre,  a  secondary  con- 
sideration often  assumes  the  importance  of  a  principal 
reason.  Theodose  had  behaved  to  him  with  charming 
bonhomie. 


88  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


vn. 

THE   WORTHY    PHELLIONS. 

The  house  to  which  Theodose  de  la  Peyrade  now  bent 
his  steps  had  been  the  hoc  erat  in  votis  of  Monsieur 
Phellion  for  twenty  years;  it  was  the  house  of  the 
Phellions,  just  as  much  as  Cerizet's  frogged  coat  was 
the  necessary  complement  of  his  personality. 

This  dwelling  was  stuck  against  the  side  of  a  large 
house,  but  only  to  the  depth  of  one  room  (about  twenty 
feet  or  so),  and  terminated  at  each  end  in  a  sort  of 
pavilion  with  one  window.  Its  chief  charm  was  a  gar- 
den, one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  square,  longer  than  the 
facade  of  the  house  by  the  width  of  a  courtyard  which 
opened  on  the  street,  and  a  little  clump  of  lindens. 
Beyond  the  second  pavilion,  the  courtyard  had,  between 
itself  and  the  street,  an  iron  railing,  in  the  centre  of 
which  was  a  little  gate  opening  in  the  middle. 

This  building,  of  rough  stone  covered  with  stucco, 
and  two  storeys  in  height,  had  received  a  coat  of  yellow- 
wash;  the  blinds  were  painted  green,  and  so  were  the 
shutters  on  the  lower  storey.  The  kitchen  occupied 
the  ground-floor  of  the  pavilion  on  the  courtyard,  and  the 
cook,  a  stout,  strong  girl,  protected  by  two  enormous 
dogs,  performed  the  functions  of  portress.  The  facade, 
composed  of  five  windows,  and  the  two  pavilions,  which 
projected  nine  feet,  were  in  the  style  Phellion.  Above 
the  door  the  master  of  the  house  had  inserted  a  tablet  of 
white  marble,  on  which,  in  letters  of  gold,  were  read  the 
words,  Aurea  mediocritas.     Above  the  sun-dial,  affixed 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  89 

to   one   panel   of  the   facade,  he  had   also  caused  to  be 
inscribed  this  sapient  maxim:    Umbra  mea  vita,  sic! 

The  former  window-sills  had  recently  been  superseded 
by  sills  of  red  Languedoc  marble,  found  in  a  marble 
shop.  At  the  bottom  of  the  garden  could  be  seen  a 
colored  statue,  intended  to  lead  casual  observers  to 
imagine  that  a  nurse  was  carrying  a  child.  The  ground- 
floor  of  the  house  contained  only  the  salon  and  the  dining- 
room,  separated  from  each  other  by  the  well  of  the 
staircase  and  the  landing,  which  formed  a  sort  of  ante- 
chamber. At  the  end  of  the  salon,  in  the  other  pavilion, 
was  a  little  study  occupied  by  Phellion. 

On  the  first  upper  floor  were  the  rooms  of  the  father 
and  mother  and  that  of  the  young  professor.  Above 
were  the  chambers  of  the  children  and  the  servants ;  for 
Phellion,  in  consideration  of  his  own  age  and  that  of  his 
wife,  had  set  up  a  male  domestic,  aged  fifteen,  his  son 
having  by  that  time  entered  upon  his  duties  of  tuition. 
To  right,  on  entering  the  courtyard,  were  little  offices 
where  wood  was  stored,  and  where  the  former  proprietor 
had  lodged  a  porter.  The  Phellions  were  no  doubt 
awaiting  the  marriage  of  their  son  to  allow  themselves 
that  additional  luxury. 

This  property,  on  which  the  Phellions  had  long  had 
their  eye,  cost  them  eighteen  thousand  francs  in  1831. 
The  house  was  separated  from  the  courtyard  by  a  balus- 
trade with  a  base  of  freestone  and  a  coping  of  tiles; 
this  little  wall,  which  was  breast-high,  was  lined  with  a 
hedge  of  Bengal  roses,  in  the  middle  of  which  opened  a 
wooden  gate  opposite  and  leading  to  the  large  gates  on 
the  street.  Those  who  know  the  cul-de-sac  of  the  Feuil- 
lantines,  will  understand  that  the  Phellion  house,  stand- 
ing at  right  angles  to  the  street,  had  a  southern  exposure, 
and  was  protected  on  the  north  by  the  immense  wall  of 
the  adjoining  house,  against  which  the  smaller  structure 
was  built.     The  cupola  of  the  Pantheon  and  that  of  the 


90  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Val-de-Grace  looked  from  there  like  two  giants,  and  so 
diminished  the  sky  space  that,  walking  in  the  garden, 
one  felt  cramped  and  oppressed.  No  place  could  be 
more  silent  than  this  blind  street. 

Such  was  the  retreat  of  the  great  unknown  citizen  who 
was  now  tasting  the  sweets  of  repose,  after  discharging 
his  duty  to  the  nation  in  the  ministry  of  finance,  from 
which  he  had  retired  as  registration  clerk  after  a  service 
of  thirty-six  years.  In  1832  he  had  led  his  battalion  of 
the  National  Guard  to  the  attack  on  Saint-Merri,  but  his 
neighbors  had  previously  seen  tears  in  his  eyes  at  the 
thought  of  being  obliged  to  fire  on  misguided  French- 
men. The  affair  was  already  decided  by  the  time  his 
legion  crossed  the  pont  Notre-Dame  at  a  quick  step, 
after  debouching  by  the  flower-market.  This  noble  hesi- 
tation won  him  the  respect  of  his  whole  quarter,  but  he 
lost  the  decoration  of  the  Legion  of  honor;  his  colonel 
told  him  in  a  loud  voice  that,  under  arms,  there  was  no 
such  thing  as  deliberation,  —  a  saying  of  Louis-Philippe 
to  the  National  Guard  of  Metz.  Nevertheless,  the  bour- 
geois virtues  of  Phellion,  and  the  great  respect  in  which 
he  was  held  in  his  own  quarter  had  kept  him  major  of 
the  battalion  for  eight  years.  He  was  now  nearly  sixty, 
and  seeing  the  moment  coming  when  he  must  lay  off  the 
sword  and  stock,  he  hoped  that  the  king  would  deign  to 
reward  his  services  by  granting  him  at  last  the  Legion 
of  honor. 

Truth  compels  us  to  say,  in  spite  of  the  stain  this 
pettiness  will  put  upon  so  fine  a  character,  that  Com- 
mander Phellion  rose  upon  the  tips  of  his  toes  at  the 
receptions  in  the  Tuileries,  and  did  all  that  he  could  to 
put  himself  forward,  even  eyeing  the  citizen-king  per- 
petually when  he  dined  at  his  table.  In  short,  he 
intrigued  in  a  dumb  sort  of  way;  but  had  never  yet  ob- 
tained a  look  in  return  from  the  king  of  his  choice.  The 
worthy  man  had  more  than  once  thought,  but  was  not 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  91 

yet  decided,  to  beg  Monsieur  Minard  to  assist  him  in 
obtaining  his  secret  desire. 

Phellion,  a  man  of  passive  obedience,  was  stoical  in 
the  matter  of  duty,  and  iron  in  all  that  touched  his  con- 
science. To  complete  this  picture  by  a  sketch  of  his 
person,  we  must  add  that  at  fifty-nine  years  of  age 
Phellion  had  thickened^  to  use  a  term  of  the  bourgeois 
vocabulary.  His  face,  of  one  monotonous  tone  and 
pitted  with  the  small-pox,  had  grown  to  resemble  a  full 
moon;  so  that  his  lips,  formerly  large,  now  seemed  of 
ordinary  size.  His  eyes,  much  weakened,  and  protected 
by  glasses,  no  longer  showed  the  innocence  of  their  light- 
blue  orbs,  which  in  former  days  had  often  excited  a 
smile;  his  white  hair  now  gave  gravity  to  much  that 
twelve  years  earlier  had  looked  like  silliness,  and  lent 
itself  to  ridicule.  Time,  which  does  such  damage  to  faces 
with  refined  and  delicate  features,  only  improves  those 
which,  in  their  youth,  have  been  coarse  and  massive. 
This  was  the  case  with  Phellion.  He  occupied  the  leisure 
of  his  old  age  in  making  an  abridgment  of  the  History 
of  France;  for  Phellion  was  the  author  of  several  works 
adopted  by  the  University. 

When  la  Peyrade  presented  himself,  the  family  were 
all  together.  Madame  Barniol  was  just  telling  her 
mother  about  one  of  her  babies,  which  was  slightly  in- 
disposed. They  were  dressed  in  their  Sunday  clothes, 
and  were  sitting  before  the  fireplace  of  the  wainscoted 
salon  on  chairs  bought  at '  a  bargain ;  and  they  all  felt 
an  emotion  when  Genevieve,  the  cook  and  portress, 
announced  the  personage  of  whom  they  were  just  then 
speaking  in  connection  with  Celeste,  whom,  we  must  here 
state,  Felix  Phellion  loved,  to  the  extent  of  going  to 
mass  to  behold  her.  The  learned  mathematician  had 
made  that  effort  in  the  morning,  and  the  family  were 
joking  him  about  it  in  a  pleasant  way,  hoping  in  their 
hearts  that  Celeste  and  her  parents  might  understand  the 
treasure  that  was  thus  offered  to  them. 


92  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

" Alas!  the  Thuilliers  seem  to  me  infatuated  with  a 
very  dangerous  man,"  said  Madame  Phellion.  "He 
took  Madame  Colleville  by  the  arm  this  morning  after 
church,  and  they  went  together  to  the  Luxembourg." 

"There  is  something  about  that  lawyer,"  remarked 
Felix  Phellion,  "that  strikes  me  as  sinister.  He  might 
be  found  to  have  committed  some  crime  and  I  should  n't 
be  surprised." 

"That's  going  too  far,"  said  old  Phellion.  "He  is 
cousin-German  to  Tartuffe,  that  immortal  figure  cast  in 
bronze  by  our  honest  Moliere;  for  Moliere,  my  children, 
had  honesty  and  patriotism  for  the  basis  of  his  genius." 

It  was  at  this  instant  that  Genevieve  came  in  to  say, 
"There  's  a  Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade  out  there,  who  wants 
to  see  monsieur." 

"To  see  me! "  exclaimed  Phellion.  "Ask  him  to 
come  in,"  he  added,  with  that  solemnity  in  little  things 
which  gave  him  even  now  a  touch  of  absurdity,  though 
it  always  impressed  his  family,  which  accepted  him  as 
king. 

Phellion,  his  two  sons,  and  his  wife  and  daughter,  rose 
and  received  the  circular  bow  made  by  the  lawyer. 

"To  what  do  we  owe  the  honor  of  your  visit,  mon- 
sieur?" asked  Phellion,  stiffly. 

"To  your  importance  in  this  arrondissement,  my  dear 
Monsieur  Phellion,  and  to  public  interests,"  replied 
Theodose. 

"Then  let  us  go  into  my  study,"  said  Phellion. 

"No,  no,  my  friend,"  said  the  rigid  Madame  Phellion, 
a  small  woman,  flat  as  a  flounder,  who  retained  upon  her 
features  the  grim  severity  with  which  she  taught  music 
in  boarding-schools  for  young  ladies;  "we  will  leave 
you." 

An  upright  Erard  piano,  placed  between  the  two  win- 
dows and  opposite  to  the  fireplace,  showed  the  constant 
occupation  of  a  proficient. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  93 

"Am  I  so  unfortunate  as  to  put  you  to  flight?  "  said 
Theodose,  smiling  in  a  kindly  way  at  the  mother  and 
daughter.  "You  have  a  delightful  retreat  here,"  he 
continued.  "You  only  lack  a  pretty  daughter-in-law  to 
pass  the  rest  of  your  days  in  this  aurea  mediocritas,  the 
wish  of  the  Latin  poet,  surrounded  by  family  joys. 
Your  antecedents,  my  dear  Monsieur  Phellion,  ought 
surely  to  win  you  such  rewards,  for  I  am  told  that  you 
are  not  only  a  patriot  but  a  good  citizen." 

"Monsieur,"  said  Phellion,  embarrassed,  "monsieur, 
I  have  only  done  my  duty."  At  the  word  "daughter- 
in-law,"  uttered  by  Theodose,  Madame  Barniol,  who 
resembled  her  mother  as  much  as  one  drop  of  water  is 
like  another,  looked  at  Madame  Phellion  and  at  Felix  as 
if  she  would  say,  "Were  we  mistaken?" 

The  desire  to  talk  this  incident  over  carried  all  four 
personages  into  the  garden,  for,  in  March,  1840,  the 
weather  was  spring-like,  at  least  in  Paris. 

"Commander,"  said  Theodose,  as  soon  as  he  was  alone 
with  Phellion,  who  was  always  flattered  by  that  title,  "I 
have  cometo  speak  to  you  about  the  election  —  " 

"Yes,  true;  we  are  about  to  nominate  a  municipal 
councillor,"  said  Phellion,  interrupting  him. 

"And  it  is  apropos  of  that  candidacy  that  I  have  come 
to  disturb  your  Sunday  joys;  but  perhaps  in  so  doing 
we  shall  not  go  beyond  the  limits  of  the  family  circle." 

It  would  be  impossible  for  Phellion  to  be  more  Phellion 
than  Theodose  was  Phellion  at  that  moment. 

"I  shall  not  let  you  say  another  word,"  replied  the 
commander,  profiting  by  the  pause  made  by  Theodose, 
who  watched  for  the  effect  of  his  speech.  "My  choice 
is  made." 

"We  have  had  the  same  idea! "  exclaimed  Theodose; 
"men  of  the  same  character  agree  as  well  as  men  of  the 
same  mind." 

"In  this  case  I  do  not  believe  in  that  phenomenon," 


94  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 

replied  Phellion.  "This  arrondissement  had  for  its  repre- 
sentative in  the  municipal  council  the  most  virtuous  of 
men,  as  he  was  the  noblest  of  magistrates.  I  allude  to 
the  late  Monsieur  Popinot,  the  deceased  judge  of  the 
Royal  courts.  When  the  question  of  replacing  him  came 
up,  his  nephew,  the  heir  to  his  benevolence,  did  not 
reside  in  this  quarter.  He  has  since,  however,  pur- 
chased, and  now  occupies,  the  house  where  his  uncle 
lived  in  the  rue  de  la  Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve;  he 
is  the  physician  of  the  Ecole  Polytechnique  and  that  of 
our  hospitals;  he  does  honor  to  this  quarter;  for  these 
reasons,  and  to  pay  homage  in  the  person  of  the  nephew 
to  the  memory  of  the  uncle,  we  have  decided  to  nominate 
Doctor  Horace  Bianchon,  member  of  the  Academy  of 
Sciences,  as  you  are  aware,  and  one  of  the  most  distin- 
guished young  men  in  the  illustrious  faculty  of  Paris. 
A  man  is  not  great  in  our  eyes  solely  because  he  is  cele- 
brated; to  my  mind  the  late  Councillor  Popinot  was 
almost  another  Saint  Vincent  de  Paul." 

"But  a  doctor  is  not  an  administrator,"  replied 
Theodose;  "and,  besides,  I  have  come  to  ask  your  vote 
for  a  man  to  whom  your  dearest  interests  require  that 
you  should  sacrifice  a  predilection,  which,  after  all,  is 
quite  unimportant  to  the  public  welfare." 

"Monsieur!  "  cried  Phellion,  rising  and  striking  an 
attitude  like  that  of  Lafon  in  "Le  Glorieux,"  "Do  you 
despise  me  sufficiently  to  suppose  that  my  personal  inter- 
ests could  ever  influence  my  political  conscience?  When 
a  matter  concerns  the  public  welfare,  I  am  a  citizen  — 
nothing  more,  and  nothing  less." 

Theodose  smiled  to  himself  at  the  thought  of  the  battle 
which  was  now  to  take  place  between  the  father  and  the 
citizen. 

"Do  not  bind  yourself  to  your  present  ideas,  I  entreat 
you,"  he  said,  "for  this  matter  concerns  the  happiness 
of  your  dear  Felix." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  95 

"What  do  you  mean  by  those  words?"  asked  Phellion, 
stopping  short  in  the  middle  of  the  salon  and  posing, 
with  his  hand  thrust  through  the  bosom  of  his  waistcoat 
from  right  to  left,  in  the  well-known  attitude  of  Odilon 
Barrot. 

"I  have  come  in  behalf  of  our  mutual  friend,  the 
worthy  and  excellent  Monsieur  Thuillier,  whose  influence 
on  the  destiny  of  that  beautiful  Celeste  Colleville  must 
be  well  known  to  you.  If,  as  I  think,  your  son,  whose 
merits  are  incontestable  and  of  whom  both  families  may 
well  be  proud,  if,  I  say,  he  is  courting  Celeste  with  a 
view  to  a  marriage  in  which  all  expediencies  may  be  com- 
bined, you  cannot  do  more  to  promote  that  end  than  to 
obtain  Thuillier's  eternal  gratitude  by  proposing  your 
worthy  friend  to  the  suffrages  of  your  fellow-citizens. 
As  for  me,  though  I  have  lately  come  into  the  quarter, 
I  can,  thanks  to  the  influence  I  enjoy  through  certain  legal 
benefits  done  to  the  poor,  materially  advance  his  interests. 
I  might,  perhaps,  have  put  myself  forward  for  this  posi- 
tion; but  serving  the  poor  brings  in  but  little  money; 
and,  besides,  the  modesty  of  my  life  is  out  of  keeping 
with  such  distinctions.  I  have  devoted  myself,  monsieur, 
to  the  service  of  the  weak,  like  the  late  Councillor  Popinot, 
—  a  sublime  man,  as  you  justly  remarked.  If  I  had  not 
already  chosen  a  career  which  is  in  some  sort  monastic, 
and  precludes  all  idea  of  marriage  and  public  office,  my 
taste,  my  second  vocation,  would  lead  me  to  the  service 
of  God,  to  the  Church.  I  do  not  trumpet  what  I  do,  like 
the  philanthropists;  I  do  not  write  about  it;  I  simply 
act;  I  am  pledged  to  Christian  charity.  The  ambition 
of  our  friend  Thuillier  becoming  known  to  me,  I  have 
wished  to  contribute  to  the  happiness  of  two  young 
people  who  seem  to  me  made  for  each  other,  by  sug- 
gesting to  you  the  means  of  winning  the  rather  cold 
heart  of  Monsieur  Thuillier." 

Phellion   was    bewildered    by    this   tirade,    admirably 


96  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

delivered;  he  was  dazzled,  attracted;  but  he  remained 
Phellion;  he  walked  up  to  the  lawyer  and  held  out  his 
hand,  which  la  Peyrade  took. 

"Monsieur,"  said  the  commander,  with  emotion,  "I 
have  misjudged  you.  What  you  have  done  me  the  honor 
to  confide  to  me  will  die  there,"  laying  his  hand  on  his 
heart.  "You  are  one  of  the  men  of  whom  we  have  too 
few,  —  men  who  console  us  for  many  evils  inherent  in  our 
social  state.  Righteousness  is  seen  so  seldom  that  our 
too  feeble  natures  distrust  appearances.  You  have  in 
me  a  friend,  if  you  will  allow  me  the  honor  of  assuming 
that  title.  But  you  must  learn  to  know  me,  monsieur. 
I  should  lose  my  own  esteem  if  I  nominated  Thuillier. 
No,  my  son  shall  never  owe  his  happiness  to  an  evil 
action  on  his  father's  part.  I  shall  not  change  my  can- 
didate because  my  son's  interests  demand  it.  That  is 
civic  virtue,  monsieur." 

La  Peyrade  pulled  out  his  handkerchief  and  rubbed  it 
in  his  eye  so  that  it  drew  a  tear,  as  he  said,  holding  out 
his  hand  to  Phellion,  and  turning  aside  his  head :  — 

"Ah!  monsieur,  how  sublime  a  struggle  between  pub- 
lic and  private  duty!  Had  I  come  here  only  to  see  this 
sight,  my  visit  would  not  have  been  wasted.  You  can- 
not do  otherwise !  In  your  place,  I  should  do  the  same. 
You  are  that  noblest  thing  that  God  has  made  —  a 
righteous  man!  a  citizen  of  the  Jean- Jacques  type! 
With  many  such  citizens,  oh  France!  my  country!  what 
mightest  thou  become!  It  is  I,  monsieur,  who  solicit, 
humbly,  the  honor  to  be  your  friend." 

"What  can  be  happening?"  said  Madame  Phellion, 
watching  the  scene  through  the  window.  "  Do  see 
your  father  and  that  horrid  man  embracing  each  other." 

Phellion  and  la  Peyrade  now  came  out  and  joined  the 
family  in  the  garden. 

"My  dear  Felix,"  said  the  old  man,  pointing  to  la 
Peyrade,    who   was    bowing   to  Madame   Phellion,    "be 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  97 

very  grateful  to  that  admirable  young  man ;  he  will  prove 
most  useful  to  you." 

The  lawyer  walked  for  about  five  minutes  with  Madame 
Barniol  and  Madame  Phellion  beneath  the  leafless  lin- 
dens, and  gave  them  (in  consequence  of  the  embarassing 
circumstances  created  by  Phellion' s  political  obstinacy) 
a  piece  of  advice,  the  effects  of  which  were  to  bear  fruit 
that  evening,  while  its  first  result  was  to  make  both 
ladies  admire  his  talents,  his  frankness,  and  his  inap- 
preciable good  qualities.  When  the  lawyer  departed  the 
whole  family  conducted  him  to  the  street  gate,  and  all 
eyes  followed  him  until  he  had  turned  the  corner  of  the 
rue  du  Faubourg-Saint-Jacques.  Madame  Phellion  then 
took  the  arm  of  her  husband  to  return  to  the  salon, 
saying:  — 

"Hey!  my  friend!  what  does  this  mean?  You,  such 
a  good  father,  how  can  you,  from  excessive  delicacy, 
stand  in  the  way  of  such  a  fine  marriage  for  our  Felix?  " 

"My  dear,"  replied  Phellion,  "the  great  men  of 
antiquity,  Brutus  and  others,  were  never  fathers  when 
called  upon  to  be  citizens.  The  bourgeoisie  has,  even 
more  than  the  aristocracy  whose  place  it  has  been  called 
upon  to  take,  the  obligations  of  the  highest  virtues. 
Monsieur  de  Saint-Hilaire  did  not  think  of  his  lost  arm 
in  presence  of  the  dead  Turenne.  We  must  give  proof 
of  our  worthiness ;  let  us  give  it  at  every  stage  of  the 
social  hierarchy.  Shall  I  instruct  my  family  in  the 
highest  civic  principles  only  to  ignore  them  myself  at 
the  moment  for  applying  them?  No,  my  dear;  weep,  if 
you  must,  to-day,  but  to-morrow  you  will  respect  me,"  he 
added,  seeing  tears  in  the  eyes  of  his  starched  better  half. 

These  noble  words  were  said  on  the  sill  of  the  door, 
above  which  was  written,  Aurea  medioeritas. 

"I  ought  to  have  put,  et  digna,"  added  Phellion, 
pointing  to  the'  tablet,  "but  those  two  words  would 
imply  self-praise." 

7 


98  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Father,"  said  Marie-Theodore  Phellion,  the  future 
engineer  of  ponts  et  chaussees,  when  the  family  were  once 
more  seated  in  the  salon,  "it  seems  to  me  that  there  is 
nothing  dishonorable  in  changing  one's  determination 
about  a  choice  which  is  of  no  real  consequence  to  public 
welfare." 

"No  consequence,  my  son!  "  cried  Phellion.  "Between 
ourselves  I  will  say,  and  Felix  shares  my  opinion,  Mon- 
sieur Thuillier  is  absolutely  without  capacity;  he  knows 
nothing.  Monsieur  Horace  Bianchon  is  an  able  man; 
he  will  obtain  a  thousand  things  for  our  arrondissement, 
and  Thuillier  will  obtain  none!  Remember  this,  my 
son;  to  change  a  good  determination  for  a  bad  one  from 
motives  of  self-interest  is  one  of  those  infamous  actions 
which  escape  the  control  of  men  but  are  punished  by 
God.  I  am,  or  I  think  I  am,  void  of  all  blame  before 
my  conscience,  and  I  owe  it  to  you,  my  children,  to  leave 
my  memory  unstained  among  you.  Nothing,  therefore, 
can  make  me  change  my  determination." 

"Oh,  my  good  father!  "  cried  the  little  Barniol  woman, 
flinging  herself  on  a  cushion  at  Phellion's  knees,  "don't 
ride  your  high  horse!  There  are  many  fools  and  idiots 
in  the  municipal  council,  and  France  gets  along  all  the 
same.  That  old  Thuillier  will  adopt  the  opinions  of 
those  about  him.  Do  reflect  that  Celeste  will  probably 
have  five  hundred  thousand  francs." 

"She  might  have  millions,"  said  Phellion,  "and  I 
might  see  them  there  at  my  feet  before  I  would  propose 
Thuillier,  when  I  owe  to  the  memory  of  the  best  of  men 
to  nominate,  if  possible,  Horace  Bianchon,  his  nephew. 
From  the  heaven  above  us  Popinot  is  contemplating  and 
applauding  me!"  cried  Phellion,  with  exaltation.  "It 
is  by  such  considerations  as  you  suggest  that  France  is 
being  lowered,  and  the  bourgeoisie  are  bringing  them- 
selves into  contempt." 

"My  father  is  right,"  said  Felix,  coming  out  of  a  deep 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  99 

revery.  "He  deserves  our  respect  and  love;  as  he  has 
throughout  the  whole  course  of  his  modest  and  honored 
life.  I  would  not  owe  my  happiness  either  to  remorse 
in  his  noble  soul,  or  to  a  low  political  bargain.  I  love 
Celeste  as  I  love  my  own  family ;  but,  above  all  that,  I 
place  my  father's  honor,  and  since  this  question  is  a 
matter  of  conscience  with  him  it  must  not  be  spoken  of 
again." 

Phellion,  with  his  eyes  full  of  tears,  went  up  to  his 
eldest  son  and  took  him  in  his  arms,  saying,  "My  son! 
my  son !  "  in  a  choking  voice. 

"All  that  is  nonsense,"  whispered  Madame  Phellion  in 
Madame  Barniol's  ear.  "Come  and  dress  me;  I  shall 
make  an  end  of  this ;  I  know  your  father ;  he  has  put  his 
foot  down  now.  To  carry  out  the  plan  that  pious  young 
man,  Theodose,  suggested,  I  want  your  help;  hold  your- 
self ready  to  give  it,  my  daughter." 

At  this  moment,  Genevieve  came  in  and  gave  a  letter 
to  Monsieur  Phellion. 

"An  invitation  for  dinner  to-day,  for  Madame  Phellion 
and  Felix  and  myself,  at  the  Thuilliers  ',"  he  said. 

The  magnificent  and  surprising  idea  of  Thuillier's 
municipal  advancement,  put  forth  by  the  "advocate  of 
the  poor"  was  not  less  upsetting  in  the  Thuillier  house- 
hold than  it  was  in  the  Phellion  salon.  Jerome  Thuillier, 
without  actually  confiding  anything  to  his  sister,  for  he 
made  it  a  point  of  honor  to  obey  his  Mephistopheles,  had 
rushed  to  her  in  great  excitement  to  say: — 

"My  dearest  girl"  (he  always  touched  her  heart  with 
those  caressing  words),  "we  shall  have  some  big-wigs  at 
dinner  to-day.  I'm  going  to  ask  the  Minards;  there- 
fore take  pains  about  your  dinner.  I  have  written  to 
Monsieur  and  Madame  Phellion;  it  is  rather  late;  but 
there  's  no  need  of  ceremony  with  them.  As  for  the 
Minards,  I  must  throw  a  little  dust  in  their  eyes;  1  have 
a  particular  need  of  them." 


100  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Four  Minards,  three  Phellions,  four  Collevilles,  and 
ourselves ;  that  makes  thirteen  —  " 

"La  Peyrade,  fourteen;  and  it  is  worth  while  to  invite 
Dutocq ;  he  may  be  useful  to  us.     I  '11  go  up  and  see  him." 

"What  are  you  scheming?"  cried  his  sister.  "Fif- 
teen to  dinner!  There  's  forty  francs,  at  the  very  least, 
waltzing  off." 

"You  won't  regret  them,  my  dearest.  I  want  you 
to  be  particularly  agreeable  to  our  young  friend,  la 
Peyrade.  There's  a  friend,  indeed!  you'll  soon  have 
proofs  of  that!     If  you  love  me,  cosset  him  well." 

So  saying,  he  departed,  leaving  Brigitte  bewildered. 

" Proofs,  indeed!  yes,  I'll  look  out  for  proofs,"  she 
said.  "I'm  not  to  be  caught  with  fine  words,  not  I! 
He  is  an  amiable  fellow ;  but  before  I  take  him  into  my 
heart  I  shall  study  him  a  little  closer." 

After  inviting  Dutocq,  Thuillier,  having  bedizened 
himself,  went  to  the  hotel  Minard,  rue  des  Macons- 
Sorbonne,  to  capture  the  stout  Zelie,  and  gloss  over  the 
shortness  of  the  invitation. 

Minard  had  purchased  one  of  those  large  and  sumptuous 
habitations  which  the  old  religious  orders  built  about 
the  Sorbonne,  and  as  Thuillier  mounted  the  broad  stone 
steps  with  an  iron  balustrade,  that  proved  how  arts  of 
the  second  class  flourished  under  Louis  XIII.,  he  envied 
both  the  mansion  and  its  occupant,  —  the  mayor. 

This  vast  building,  standing  between  a  courtyard  and 
garden,  is  noticeable  as  a  specimen  of  the  style,  both 
noble  and  elegant,  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIII.,  coming 
singularly,  as  it  did,  between  the  bad  taste  of  the  expir- 
ing renaissance  and  the  heavy  grandeur  of  Louis  XIV., 
at  its  dawn.  This  transition  period  is  shown  in  many 
public  buildings.  The  massive  scroll-work  of  several 
facades — that  of  the  Sorbonne,  for  instance, — and 
columns  rectified  according  to  the  rules  of  Grecian  art, 
were  beginning  to  appear  in  this  architecture. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  101 

A  grocer,  a  lucky  adulterator,  r.ovv  took  the  place 
of  the  former  ecclesiastical  governor  of  an  institution 
called  in  former  times  L'Economai ;  an  establishment 
connected  with  the  general  agency  of  the  old  French 
clergy,  and  founded  by  the  long-sighted  genius  of  Riche- 
lieu. Thuillier's  name  opened  for  him  the  doors  of 
the  salon,  where  sat  enthroned  in  velvet  and  gold,  amid 
the  most  magnificent  "Chineseries,"  the  poor  woman 
who  weighed  with  all  her  avoirdupois  on  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  princes  and  princesses  at  the  "popular  balls" 
of  the  palace. 

"Is  n't  she  a  good  subject  for  '  La  Caricature  '  ?  "  said 
a  so-called  lady  of  the  bedchamber  to  a  duchess,  who 
could  hardly  help  laughing  at  the  aspect  of  Zelie,  glitter- 
ing with  diamonds,  red  as  a  poppy,  squeezed  into  a  gold 
brocade,  and  rolling  along  like  the  casks  of  her  former 
shop. 

"Will  you  pardon  me,  fair  lady,"  began  Thuillier, 
twisting  his  body,  and  pausing  in  pose  number  two  of 
his  imperial  repertory,  "for  having  allowed  this  invita- 
tion to  remain  in  my  desk,  thinking,  all  the  while,  that  it 
was  sent?     It  is  for  to-day,  but  perhaps  I  am  too  late?  " 

Zelie  examined  her  husband's  face  as  he  approached 
them  to  receive  Thuillier ;  then  she  said :  — 

"We  intended  to  drive  into  the  country  and  dine  at 
some  chance  restaurant;  but  we  '11  give  up  that  idea  and 
all  the  more  readily  because,  in  my  opinion,  it  is  getting 
devilishly  vulgar  to  drive  out  of  Paris  on  Sundays." 

"We  will  have  a  little  dance  to  the  piano  for  the 
young  people,  if  enough  come,  as  I  hope  they  will.  I 
have  sent  a  line  to  Phellion,  whose  wife  is  intimate 
with  Madame  Prou,  the  successor  —  " 

"Successoress,"  interrupted  Madame  Minard. 

"No,"  said  Thuillier,  "it  ought  to  be  success'ress; 
just  as  we  say  may'ress,  dropping  the  o,  you  know." 

"Is  it  full  dress?"  asked  Madame  Minard. 


102  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Heavens!  no,,"  replied  Thuillier;  "you  would  get  me 
finely  scolded  by  my  sister.  No,  it  is  only  a  family 
part).  I'mlci'  the  Empire,  madame,  we  all  devoted 
ourselves  to  dancing*.  At  that  great  epoch  of  our 
national  life  they  thought  as  much  of  a  fine  dancer  as 
they  did  of  a  good  soldier.  Nowadays  the  country  is 
so  matter-of-fact." 

"Well,  we  won't  talk  politics,"  said  the  mayor,  smil- 
ing. "The  King  is  grand;  he  is  very  able.  I  have  a 
deep  admiration  for  my  own  time,  and  for  the  institu- 
tions which  we  have  given  to  ourselves.  The  King, 
you  may  be  sure,  knows  very  well  what  he  is  doing  by 
the  development  of  industries.  He  is  struggling  hand 
to  hand  against  England ;  and  we  are  doing  him  more 
harm  during  this  fruitful  peace  than  all  the  wars  of  the 
Empire  could  have  done." 

"What  a  deputy  Minard  would  make!"  cried  Zelie, 
naively.  "  He  practises  speechifying  at  home.  You  '11 
help  us  to  get  him  elected,  won't  you,  Tnuillier?" 

"We  won't  talk  politics  now,"  replied  Tnuillier. 
"Come  at  five." 

"Will  that  little  Vinet  be  there?"  asked  Minard;  "he 
comes,  no  doubt,  for  Celeste." 

"Then  he  may  go  into  mourning,"  replied  Thuillier. 
"Brigitte  won't  hear  of  him." 

Zelie  and  Minard  exchanged  a  smile  of  satisfaction. 

"To  think  that  we  must  hob-nob  with  such  common 
people,  all  for  the  sake  of  our  son!"  cried  Zelie,  when 
Thuillier  was  safely  down  the  staircase,  to  which  the 
mayor  had  accompanied  him. 

"Ha!  he  thinks  to  be  deputy!"  thought  Thuillier,  as 
he  walked  away.  "These  grocers!  nothing  satisfies 
them.  Heavens !  what  would  Napoleon  say  if  he  could 
see  the  government  in  the  hands  of  such  people!  I  'm  a 
trained  administrator,  at  any  rate.  What  a  competitor, 
to  be  sure!     I  wonder  what  la  Peyrade  will  say?" 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  103 

The  ambitious  ex-beau  now  went  to  invite  the  whole 
Laudigeois  family  for  the  evening,  after  which  he  went 
to  the  Collevilles ',  to  make  sure  that  Celeste  should 
wear  a  becoming  gown.  He  found  Flavie  rather  pen- 
sive. She  hesitated  about  coming,  but  Thuillier  over- 
came her  indecision. 

"My  old  and  ever  young  friend,"  he  said,  taking  her 
round  the  waist,  for  she  was  alone  in  her  little  salon, 
"I  won't  have  any  secret  from  you.  A  great  affair  is 
in  the  wind  for  me.  I  can't  tell  you  more  than  that, 
but  I  can  ask  you  to  be  particularly  charming  to  a 
certain  young  man  —  " 

"Who  is  it?" 

"LaPeyrade." 

"Why,  Charles?" 

"  He  holds  my  future  in  his  hands.  Besides,  he  's  a 
man  of  genius,  I  know  what  that  is.  He  's  got  this 
sort  of  thing,"  —  and  Thuillier  made  the  gesture  of  a 
dentist  pulling  out  a  back  tooth.  "We  must  bind  him  to 
us,  Flavie.  But,  above  all,  don't  let  him  see  his  power. 
As  for  me,  I  shall  just  give  and  take  with  him." 

"Do  you  want  me  to  be  coquettish?  " 

"Not  too  much  so,  my  angel,"  replied  Thuillier,  with 
a  foppish  air. 

And  he  departed,  not  observing  the  stupor  which  over- 
came Flavie. 

"That  young  man  is  a  power,"  she  said  to  herself. 
"Well,  we  shall  see!  " 

For  these  reasons  she  dressed  her  hair  with  marabouts, 
put  on  her  prettiest  gown  of  gray  and  pink,  which 
allowed  her  fine  shoulders  to  be  seen  beneath  a  pelerine 
of  black  lace,  and  took  care  to  keep  Celeste  in  a  little 
silk  frock  made  with  a  yoke  and  a  large  plaited  collar- 
ette, telling  her  to  dress  her  hair  plainly,  a  la  Berthe. 


104  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


ib 


VIII. 

MAJOREM   THEODOSIS   GLORIAM. 


At  half-past  four  o'clock  Theodose  was  at  his  post. 
He  had  put  on  his  vacant,  half-servile  manner  and  soft 
voice,  and  he  drew  Thuillier  at  once  into  the  garden. 

"My  friend, "  he  said,  "I  don't  doubt  your  triumph, 
but  I  feel  the  necessity  of  again  warning  you  to  be 
absolutely  silent.  If  you  are  questioned  about  anything, 
especially  about  Celeste,  make  evasive  answers  which 
will  keep  your  questioners  in  suspense.  You  must  have 
learned  how  to  do  that  in  a  government  office." 

"I  understand!  "  said  Thuillier.  "But  what  certainty 
have  you  ?  " 

"You  '11  see  what  a  fine  dessert  I  have  prepared  for 
you.  But  please  be  modest.  There  come  the  Minards; 
let  me  pipe  to  them.  Bring  them  out  here,  and  then 
disappear  yourself," 

After  the  first  salutations,  la  Peyrade  was  careful  to 
keep  close  to  the  mayor,  and  presently  at  an  opportune 
moment  he  drew  him  aside  to  say:  — 

"  Monsieur  le  maire,  a  man  of  your  political  impor- 
tance does  n't  come  to  bore  himself  in  a  house  of  this 
kind  without  an  object.  I  don't  want  to  fathom  your 
motives  —  which,  indeed,  I  have  no  right  to  do  —  and 
my  part  in  this  world  is  certainly  not  to  mingle  with 
earthly  powers ;  but  please  pardon  my  apparent  presump- 
tion, and  deign  to  listen  to  a  piece  of  advice  which  I 
shall  venture  to  give  you.  If  I  do  you  a  service  to-day 
you  are  in  a  position  to  return  it  to  me  to-morrow; 
therefore,  in  case  I  should  be  so  fortunate  as  to  do  you 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie,  105 

a  good  turn,  I  am  really  only  obeying  the  law  of  self- 
interest.  Our  friend  Thuillier  is  in  despair  at  being  a 
nobody ;  he  has  taken  it  into  his  head  that  he  wants  to 
become  a  personage  in  this  arrondissement  —  " 

"Ah!  ah!"  exclaimed  Minard. 

"Oh!  nothing  very  exalted;  he  wants  to  be  elected  to 
the  municipal  council.  Now,  I  know  that  Phellion,  see- 
ing the  influence  such  a  service  would  have  on  his  family 
interests,  intends  to  propose  our  poor  friend  as  candi- 
date. Well,  perhaps  you  might  think  it  wise,  in  your 
own  interests,  to  be  beforehand  with  him.  Thuillier' s 
nomination  could  only  be  favorable  for  you  —  I  mean 
agreeable;  and  he'll  fill  his  place  in  the  council  very 
well ;  there  are  some  there  who  are  not  as  strong  as  he. 
Besides,  owing  his  place  to  your  support,  he  will  see 
with  your  eyes ;  he  already  looks  to  you  as  one  of  the 
lights  of  the  town." 

"My  dear  fellow,  I  thank  you  very  much,"  replied 
Minard.  "You  are  doing  me  a  service  I  cannot  suffi- 
ciently acknowledge,  and  which  proves  to  me  —  " 

"That  I  don't  like  those  Phellions,"  said  la  Peyrade, 
taking  advantage  of  a  slight  hesitation  on  the  part  of 
the  mayor,  who  feared  to  express  an  idea  in  which  the 
lawyer  might  see  contempt.  "I  hate  people  who  make 
capital  out  of  their  honesty  and  coin  money  from  fine 
sentiments." 

"You  know  them  well,"  said  Minard;  "they  are 
sycophants.  That  man's  whole  life  for  the  last  ten 
years  is  explained  by  this  bit  of  red  ribbon,"  added  the 
mayor,  pointing  to  his  own  buttonhole. 

"Take  care!"  said  the  lawyer,  "his  son  is  in  love 
with  Celeste,  and  he 's  fairly  in  the  heart  of  the 
family." 

"Yes,  but  my  son  has  twelve  thousand  a  year  in  his 
own  right." 

"Oh!"  said  Theodose,  with  a  start,   "Mademoiselle 


106  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Brigitte  was  saying  the  other  day  that  she  wanted  at 
least  as  much  as  that  in  Celeste's  suitor.  Moreover,  six 
months  hence  you  '11  probably  hear  that  Thuillier  has  a 
property  worth  forty  thousand  francs  a  year." 

"The  devil!  well,  I  thought  as  much.  Yes,  certainly, 
he  shall  be  made  a  member  of  the  municipal  council." 

"In  any  case,  don't  say  anything  about  me  to  him," 
said  the  advocate  of  the  poor,  who  now  hastened  away 
to  speak  to  Madame  Phellion.  "Well,  my  fair  lady,"  he 
said,  when  he  reached  her,  "have  you  succeeded?" 

"I  waited  till  four  o'clock;  and  then  that  worthy  and 
excellent  man  would  not  let  me  finish  what  I  had  to  say. 
He  is  much  too  busy  to  accept  such  an  office,  and  he 
sent  a  letter  which  Monsieur  Phellion  has  read,  saying 
that  lie,  Doctor  Biancbon,  thanked  him  for  his  good 
intentions,  and  assured  him  that  his  own  candidate  was 
Monsieur  Thuillier.  He  said  he  should  use  all  his  influ- 
ence in  his  favor,  and  begged  my  husband  to  do  the 
same." 

"And  what  did  your  excellent  husband  say?" 

"  '  I  have  done  my  duty,'  he  said.  'I  have  not  been 
false  to  my  conscience;  and  now  I  am  all  for  Thuillier.'  " 

"Well,  then,  the  thing  is  settled,"  said  la  Peyrade. 
"Ignore  my  visit,  and  take  all  the  credit  of  the  idea  to 
yourselves." 

Then  he  went  to  Madame  Colleville,  composing  him- 
self in  the  attitude  and  manner  of  the  deepest  respect. 

"Madame,"  he  said,  "have  the  goodness  to  send  out 
to  me  here  that  kindly  papa  Colleville.  A  surprise  is  to 
be  given  to  Monsieur  Thuillier,  and  I  want  Monsieur 
Colleville  to  be  in  the  secret." 

While  la  Peyrade  played  the  part  of  man  of  the  world 
with  Colleville,  and  allowed  himself  various  witty  sar- 
casms when  explaining  to  him  Thuillier's  candidacy, 
telling  him  he  ought  to  support  it,  if  only  to  exhibit 
his  incapacity,  Flavie  was  listening  in  the  salon  to  the 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  107 

following  conversation,  which  bewildered  her  for  the 
moment  and  made  her  ears  ring. 

"I  should  like  to  know  what  Monsieur  Colleville  and 
Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade  can  be  saying  to  each  other  to 
make  them  laugh  like  that,"  said  Madame  Thuillier, 
foolishly,  looking  out  of  the  window. 

"A  lot  of  improper  things,  as  men  always  do  when 
they  talk  together,"  replied  Mademoiselle  Thuillier,  who 
often  attacked  men  with  the  sort  of  instinct  natural  to 
old  maids. 

"No,  they  are  incapable  of  that,"  said  Phellion, 
gravely.  ''Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade  is  one  of  the  most 
virtuous  young  men  I  have  ever  met.  People  know 
what  I  think  of  Felix ;  well,  I  put  the  two  on  the  same 
line ;  indeed,  I  wish  my  son  had  a  little  more  of  Monsieur 
de  la  Peyrade's  beautiful  piety." 

"You  are  right;  he  is  a  man  of  great  merit,  who  is  sure 
to  succeed,"  observed  Minard.  "As  for  me,  my  suffrages 
—  for  I  really  ought  not  to  say  protection  —  are  his." 

"He  pays  more  for  oil  than  for  bread,"  said  Dutocq. 
"I  know  that." 

"His  mother,  if  he  has  the  happiness  to  still  possess 
her,  must  be  proud  of  him,"  remarked  Madame  Thuillier, 
sententiously. 

"He  is  a  real  treasure  for  us,"  said  Thuillier.  "If 
you  only  knew  how  modest  he  is !  He  does  n't  do  himself 
justice." 

"I  can  answer  for  one  thing,"  added  Dutocq;  "no 
young  man  ever  maintained  a  nobler  attitude  in  poverty ; 
he  triumphed  over  it ;  but  he  suffered  —  it  is  easy  to  see 
that." 

"Poor  young  man!  "  cried  Zelie.  "Such  things  make 
my  heart  ache!  " 

"Any  one  could  safely  trust  both  secrets  and  fortune 
to  him,"  said  Thuillier;  "and  in  these  days  that  is  the 
finest  thino;  that  can  be  said  of  a  man." 


108  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"It  is  Colleville  who  is  making  him  laugh,"  cried 
Dutocq. 

Just  then  Colleville  and  la  Peyrade  returned  from  the 
garden  the  very  best  friends  in  the  world. 

"Messieurs,"  said  Brigitte,  "the  soup  and  the  King 
must  never  be  kept  waiting;  give  your  hand  to  the 
ladies." 

Five  minutes  after  this  little  pleasantry  (issuing  from 
the  lodge  of  her  father  the  porter)  Brigitte  had  the  satis- 
faction of  seeing  her  table  surrounded  by  the  principal 
personages  of  this  drama;  the  rest,  with  the  one  excep- 
tion of  the  odious  Cerizet,  arrived  later. 

The  portrait  of  the  former  maker  of  canvas  money- 
bags would  be  incomplete  if  we  omitted  to  give  a  de- 
scription of  one  of  her  best  dinners.  The  physiognomy  of 
the  bourgeois  cook  of  1840  is,  moreover,  one  of  those 
details  essentially  necessary  to  a  history  of  manners  and 
customs,  and  clever  housewives  may  find  some  lessons 
in  it.  A  woman  does  n't  make  empty  bags  for  twenty 
years  without  looking  out  for  the  means  to  fill  a  few  of 
them.  Now  Brigitte  had  one  peculiar  characteristic. 
She  united  the  economy  to  which  she  owed  her  fortune 
with  a  full  understanding  of  necessary  expenses.  Her 
relative  prodigality,  when  it  concerned  her  brother  or 
Celeste,  was  the  antipodes  of  avarice.  In  fact,  she  often 
bemoaned  herself  that  she  could  n't  be  miserly.  At  her 
last  dinner  she  had  related  how,  after  struggling  ten 
minutes  and  enduring  martyrdom,  she  had  ended  by 
giving  ten  francs  to  a  poor  workwoman  whom  she  knew, 
positively,  had  been  without  food  for  two  days. 

"  Nature,"  she  said  naively,  "  is  stronger  than 
reason." 

The  soup  was  a  rather  pale  bouillon ;  for,  even  on  an 
occasion  like  this,  the  cook  had  been  enjoined  to  make 
a  great  deal  of  bouillon  out  of  the  beef  supplied.  Then, 
as  the  said  beef  was  to  feed  the  family  on  the  next  day 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  109 

and  the  day  after  that,  the  less  juice  it  expended  in  the 
bouillon,  the  more  substantial  were  the  subsequent  din- 
ners. The  beef,  little  cooked,  was  always  taken  away  at 
the  following  speech  from  Brigitte,  uttered  as  soon  as 
Thuillier  put  his  knife  into  it:  — 

"I  think  it  is  rather  tough;  send  it  away,  Thuillier, 
nobody  will  eat  it;  we  have  other  things." 

The  soup  was,  in  fact,  flanked  by  four  viands  mounted 
on  old  hot-water  chafing-dishes,  with  the  plating  worn  off. 
At  this  particular  dinner  (afterwards  called  that  of  the 
candidacy)  the  first  course  consisted  of  a  pair  of  ducks 
with  olives,  opposite  to  which  was  a  large  pie  with 
forcemeat  balls,  while  a  dish  of  eels  a  la  tartare  corre- 
sponded in  like  manner  with  a  fricandeau  on  chicory. 
The  second  course  had  for  its  central  dish  a  most  digni- 
fied goose  stuffed  with  chestnuts,  a  salad  of  vegetables 
garnished  with  rounds  of  beetroot  opposite  to  custards 
in  cups,  while  lower  down  a  dish  of  turnips  au  sucre 
faced  a  timbale  of  macaroni.  This  gala  dinner  of  the 
concierge  type  cost,  at  the  utmost,  twenty  francs,  and 
the  remains  of  the  feast  provided  the  household  for  a 
couple  of  days;  nevertheless,  Brigitte  would  say:  — 

"Pest!  when  one  has  to  have  company  how  the  money 
goes !     It  is  fearful !  " 

The  table  was  lighted  by  two  hideous  candlesticks  of 
plated  silver  with  four  branches  each,  in  which  shone 
eight  of  those  thrifty  wax-candles  that  go  by  the  name 
of  Aurora.  The  linen  was  dazzling  in  whiteness,  and 
the  silver,  with  beaded  edges,  was  the  fruit,  evidently, 
of  some  purchase  made  during  the  Revolution  by 
Thuillier' s  father.  Thus  the  fare  and  the  service  were 
in  keeping  with  the  house,  the  dining-room,  and  the 
Thuilliers  themselves,  who  could  never,  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, get  themselves  above  this  style  of  living. 
The  Minards,  Colleville,  and  la  Peyrade  exchanged  now 
and  then  a  smile  which  betrayed  their  mutually  satirical 


110  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

but  repressed  thoughts.  La  Peyrade,  seated  beside 
Flavie,   whispered   in  her  ear:  — 

"You  must  admit  that  they  ought  to  be  taught  how  to 
live.  But  those  Minards  are  no  better  in  their  way. 
What  cupidity!  they've  come  here  solely  after  Celeste. 
Your  daughter  will  be  lost  to  you  if  you  let  them  have 
her.  These  parvenus  have  all  the  vices  of  the  great 
lords  of  other  days  without  their  elegance.  Minard's 
son,  who  has  twelve  thousand  francs  a  year  of  his  own, 
could  very  well  find  a  wife  elsewhere,  instead  of  pushing 
his  speculating  rake  in  here.  What  fun  it  would  be  to 
play  upon  those  people  as  one  would  on  a  bass-viol  or  a 
clarionet!  " 

While  the  dishes  of  the  second  course  were  being 
removed,  Minard,  afraid  that  Phellion  would  precede 
him,  said  to  Thuillier  with  a  grave  air:  — 

"My  dear  Thuillier,  in  accepting  your  dinner,  I  did 
so  for  the  purpose  of  making  an  important  communica- 
tion, which  does  you  so  much  honor  that  all  here 
present  ought  to  be  made  participants  in  it." 

Thuillier  turned  pale. 

"Have  you  obtained  the  cross  for  me?"  he  cried,  on 
receiving  a  glance  from  Theodose,  and  wishing  to  prove 
that  he  was  not  without  craft. 

"You  will  doubtless  receive  it  ere  long,"  replied  the 
mayor.  "  But  the  matter  now  relates  to  something  better 
than  that.  The  cross  is  a  favor  due  to  the  good  opinion 
of  a  minister,  whereas  the  present  question  concerns  tin 
election  due  to  the  consent  of  your  fellow-citizens.  In 
a  word,  a  sufficiently  large  number  of  electors  in  your 
arrondissement  have  cast  their  eyes  upon  you,  and  wish 
to  honor  you  with  their  confidence  by  making  you  the 
representative  of  this  arrondissement  in  the  municipal 
council  of  Paris;  which,  as  everybody  knows,  is  the 
Council-general  of  the  Seine." 

"Bravo!"  cried  Dutocq. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  Ill 

Phellion  rose. 

"Monsieur  le  maire  has  forestalled  me,"  be  said  in  an 
agitated  voice,  "but  it  is  so  flattering  for  our  friend  to 
be  the  object  of  eagerness  on  the  part  of  all  good  citi- 
zens, and  to  obtain  the  public  vote  of  high  and  low,  that 
I  cannot  complain  of  being  obliged  to  come  second  only ; 
therefore,  all  honor  to  the  initiatory  authority!  "  (Here 
he  bowed  respectfully  to  Minard.)  "  Yes,  Monsieur 
Thuillier,  many  electors  think  of  giving  you  their  votes 
in  that  portion  of  the  arrondissement  where  I  keep  my 
humble  penates ;  and  you  have  the  special  advantage  of 
being  suggested  to  their  minds  by  a  distinguished  man." 
(Sensation.)  "By  a  man  in  whose  person  we  desired 
to  honor  one  of  the  most  virtuous  inhabitants  of  the 
arrondissement,  who  for  twenty  years  was,  I  may  say, 
the  father  of  it.  I  allude  to  the  late  Monsieur  Popinot, 
counsellor,  during  his  lifetime,  to  the  Royal  court,  and 
our  delegate  in  the  municipal  council  of  Paris.  But  his 
nephew,  of  whom  I  speak,  Doctor  Bianchon,  one  of  our 
glories,  has,  in  view  of  his  absorbing  duties,  declined 
the  responsibility  with  which  we  sought  to  invest  him. 
While  thanking  us  for  our  compliment  he  has  —  take 
note  of  this  —  indicated  for  our  suffrages  the  candidate 
of  Monsieur  le  maire  as  being,  in  his  opinion,  capable, 
owing  to  the  position  he  formerly  occupied,  of  exercising 
the  magisterial  functions  of  the  sedileship." 

And  Phellion  sat  down  amid  approving  murmurs. 

"Thuillier,  you  can  count  on  me,  your  old  friend," 
said  Colleville. 

At  this  moment  the  guests  were  sincerely  touched  by 
the  sight  presented  of  old  Mademoiselle  Brigitte  and 
Madame  Thuillier.  Brigitte,  pale  as  though  she  were 
fainting,  was  letting  the  slow  tears  run,  unheeded,  down 
her  cheeks,  tears  of  deepest  joy;  while  Madame  Thuillier 
sat,  as  if  struck  by  lightning,  with  her  eyes  fixed.  Sud- 
denly the  old  maid  darted  into  the  kitchen,  crying  out  to 
Josephine  the  cook:  — 


112  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Come  into  the  cellar,  my  girl,  we  must  get  out  the 
wine  behind  the  wood ! " 

"My  friends/'  said  Thujllier,  in  a  shaking  voice, 
"this  is  the  finest  moment  of  my  life,  finer  than  even  the 
day  of  my  election,  should  I  consent  to  allow  myself  to  be 
presented  to  the  suffrages  of  my  fellow-citizens"  ("You 
must!  you  must!  ") ;  "for  I  feel  myself  much  worn  down 
by  thirty  years  of  public  service,  and,  as  you  may  well 
believe,  a  man  of  honor  has  need  to  consult  his  strength 
and  his  capacities  before  he  takes  upon  himself  the 
functions  of  the  aedileship." 

"I  expected  nothing  less  of  you,  Monsieur  Thuillier," 
cried  Phellion.  "Pardon  me;  this  is  the  first  time  in 
my  life  that  I  have  ever  interrupted  a  superior ;  but  there 
are  circumstances  —  " 

"Accept!  accept!"  cried  Zelie.  "Bless  my  soul! 
what  we  want  are  men  like  you  to  govern  us." 

"Resign  yourself,  my  chief!"  cried  Dutocq,  and, 
"Long  live  the  future  municipal  councillor!  but  we 
have  n't  anything  to  drink  —  " 

"Well,  the  thing  is  settled,"  said  Minard;  "you  are 
to  be  our  candidate." 

"You  think  too  much  of  me,"  replied  Thuillier. 

"Come,  come!"  cried  Colleville.  "A  man  who  has 
done  thirty  years  in  the  galleys  of  the  ministry  of  finance 
is  a  treasure  to  the  town." 

"You  are  much  too  modest,"  said  the  younger  Minard; 
"your  capacity  is  well  known  to  us;  it  remains  a  tradi- 
tion at  the  ministry  of  finance." 

"As  you  all  insist  —  "  began  Thuillier. 

"The  King  will  be  pleased  with  our  choice;  I  can 
assure  you  of  that,"  said  Minard,  pompously. 

"Gentlemen,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "will  you  permit  a 
recent  dweller  in  the  faubourg  Saint-Jacques  to  make 
one  little  remark,  which  is  not  without  importance?" 

The  consciousness  that  everybody  had  of  the  sterling 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  113 

merits  of  the  advocate  of  the  poor  produced  the  deepest 
silence. 

"The  influence  of  Monsieur  le  maire  of  an  adjoining 
arrondissement,  which  is  immense  in  ours  where  he  has 
left  such  excellent  memories;  that  of  Monsieur  Phellion, 
the  oracle  —  yes,  let  the  truth  be  spoken,"  he  exclaimed, 
noticing  a  gesture  made  by  Phellion —  "the  oracle  of  his 
battalion;  the  influence,  no  less  powerful,  which  Monsieur 
Colleville  owes  to  the  frank  heartiness  of  his  manner, 
and  to  his  urbanity ;  that  of  Monsieur  Dutocq,  the  clerk 
of  the  justice  court,  which  will  not  be  less  efficacious,  I 
am  sure;  and  the  poor  efforts  which  I  can  offer  in  my 
humble  sphere  of  activity,  —  are  pledges  of  success,  but 
they  are  not  success  itself.  To  obtain  a  rapid  triumph 
we  should  pledge  ourselves,  now  and  here,  to  keep  the 
deepest  secrecy  on  the  manifestation  of  sentiments  which 
has  just  taken  place.  Otherwise,  we  should  excite,  with- 
out knowing  or  willing  it,  envy  and  all  the  other  second- 
ary passions,  which  would  create  for  us  later  various 
obstacles  to  overcome.  The  political  meaning  of  the 
new  social  organization,  its  very  basis,  its  token,  and  the 
guarantee  for  its  continuance,  are  in  a  certain  sharing  of 
the  governing  power  with  the  middle  classes,  classes  who 
are  the  true  strength  of  modern  societies,  the  centre  of  mo- 
rality, of  all  good  sentiments  and  intelligent  work.  But  we 
cannot  conceal  from  ourselves  that  the  principle  of  elec- 
tion, extended  now  to  almost  every  function,  has  brought 
the  interests  of  ambition,  and  the  passion  for  being 
something,  excuse  the  word,  into  social  depths  where 
they  ought  never  to  have  penetrated.  Some  see  good  in 
this ;  others  see  evil ;  it  is  not  my  place  to  judge  between 
them  in  presence  of  minds  before  whose  eminence  I  bow. 
I  content  myself  by  simply  suggesting  this  question  in 
order  to  show  the  dangers  which  the  banner  of  our 
friend  must  meet.  See  for  yourselves!  the  decease  of 
our    late    honorable    representative    in    the    municipal 

8 


114  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

council  dates  back  scarcely  one  week,  and  already  the 
arrondissement  is  being  canvassed  by  inferior  ambi- 
tions. Such  men  put  themselves  forward  to  be  seen  at 
any  price.  The  writ  of  convocation  will,  probably,  not 
take  effect  for  a  month  to  come.  Between  now  and  then, 
imagine  the  intrigues!  I  entreat  you  not  to  expose  our 
friend  Thuillier  to  the  blows  of  his  competitors;  let 
us  not  deliver  him  over  to  public  discussion,  that  mod- 
ern harpy  which  is  but  the  trumpet  of  envy  and 
calumny,  the  pretext  seized  by  malevolence  to  belittle  all 
that  is  great,  soil  all  that  is  immaculate,  and  dishonor 
whatever  is  sacred.  Let  us,  rather,  do  as  the  Third 
Party  is  now  doing  in  the  Chamber,  —  keep  silence  and 
vote!" 

44 He  speaks  well,"  said  Phellion  to  his  neighbor 
Dutocq. 

"And  how  strong  the  statement  is!  " 

Envy  had  turned  Minard  and  his  son  green  and  yellow. 

"That  is  well  said  and  very  true,"  remarked  Minard. 

1  'Unanimously  adopted!  "  cried  Colleville.  "Messieurs, 
we  are  men  of  honor;  it  suffices  to  understand  each  other 
on  this  point." 

"Whoso  desires  the  end  accepts  the  means,"  said 
Phellion,  emphatically. 

At  this  moment,  Mademoiselle  Thuillier  reappeared, 
followed  by  her  two  servants ;  the  key  of  the  cellar  was 
hanging  from  her  belt,  and  three  bottles  of  champagne, 
three  of  hermitage,  and  one  bottle  of  malaga  were  placed 
upon  the  table.  She  herself  was  carrying,  with  almost 
respectful  care,  a  smaller  bottle,  like  a  fairy  Carabosse, 
which  she  placed  before  her.  In  the  midst  of  the  hilar- 
ity caused  by  this  abundance  of  excellent  things  —  a 
fruit  of  gratitude,  which  the  poor  spinster  in  the  delirium 
of  her  joy  poured  out  with  a  profusion  which  put  to 
shame  the  sparing  hospitality  of  her  usual  fortnightly 
dinners  —  numerous  dessert  dishes  made  their  appear- 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  115 

ance:  mounds  of  almonds,  raisins,  figs,  and  nuts  (popu- 
larly known  as  the  "four  beggars"),  pyramids  of  oranges, 
confections,  crystallized  fruits,  brought  from  the  hidden 
depths  of  her  cupboards,  which  would  never  have  figured 
on  the  table-cloth  had  it  not  been  for  the  "candidacy." 

"Celeste,  they  will  bring  you  a  bottle  of  brandy 
which  my  father  obtained  in  1802;  make  an  orange- 
salad!"  cried  Brigitte  to  her  sister-in-law.  "Monsieur 
Phellion,  open  the  champagne;  that  bottle  is  for  you 
three.  Monsieur  Dutocq,  take  this  one.  Monsieur 
Colleville,  you  know  how  to  pop  corks!" 

The  two  maids  distributed  champagne  glasses,  also 
claret  glasses,  and  wine  glasses.  Josephine  also  brought 
three  more  bottles  of  Bordeaux. 

"The  year  of  the  comet!"  cried  Thuillier,  laughing, 
"Messieurs,  you  have  turned  my  sister's  head." 

"And  this  evening  you  shall  have  punch  and  cakes," 
she  said.  "I  have  sent  to  the  chemists  for  some  tea. 
Heavens!  if  I  had  only  known  the  affair  concerned  an 
election,"  she  cried,  looking  at  her  sister-in-law,  "I'd 
have  served  the  turkey." 

A  general  laugh  welcomed  this  speech. 

"We  have  a  goose!  "  said  Minard  junior. 

"The  carts  are  unloading !  "  cried  Madame  Thuillier, 
as  marrons  glacis  and  meringues  were  placed  upon  the 
table. 

Mademoiselle  Thuillier's  face  was  blazing.  She  was 
really  superb  to  behold.  Never  did  sisterly  love  assume 
such  a  frenzied  expression. 

"To  those  who  know  her,  it  is  really  touching," 
remarked  Madame  Colleville. 

The  glasses  were  filled.  The  guests  all  looked  at  one 
another,  evidently  expecting  a  toast,  whereupon  la 
Peyrade  said :  — 

"Messieurs,  let  us  drink  to  something  sublime." 

Everybody  looked  curious. 


116  The  Leaser  Bourgeoisie. 


To  Mademoiselle  Brigitte! " 


They  all  rose,  clinked  glasses,  and  cried  with  one 
voice,  "  Mademoiselle  Brigitte ! "  so  much  enthusiasm 
did  the  exhibition  of  a  true  feeling  excite. 

"Messieurs,"  said  Phellion,  reading  from  a  paper 
written  in  pencil,  "To  work  and  its  splendors,  in  the 
person  of  our  former  comrade,  now  become  one  of  the 
mayors  of  Paris,  —  to  Monsieur  Minard  and  his  wife !  " 

After  five  minutes'  general  conversation  Thuillier  rose 
and  said:  — 

"Messieurs,  To  the  King  and  the  royal  family!  I  add 
nothing;  the  toast  says  all." 

"To  the  election  of  my  brother!"  said  Mademoiselle 
Thuillier  a  moment  later. 

"Now  I'll  make  you  laugh,"  whispered  la  Peyrade  in 
Flavie's  ear. 

And  he  rose. 

4 'To  Woman!  "  he  said;  "that  enchanting  sex  to  whom 
we  owe  our  happiness,  —  not  to  speak  of  our  mothers, 
our  sisters,  and  our  wives !  " 

This  toast  excited  general  hilarity,  and  Colleville, 
already  somewhat  gay,   exclaimed :  — 

"Rascal!  you  have  stolen  my  speech!" 

The  mayor  then  rose ;  profound  silence  reigned. 

"Messieurs,  our  institutions!  from  which  come  the 
strength  and  grandeur  of  dynastic  France!" 

The  bottles  disappeared  amid  a  chorus  of  admiration 
as  to  the  marvellous  goodness  and  delicacy  of  their 
contents. 

Celeste  Colleville  here  said  timidly :  — 

"Mamma,  will  you  permit  me  to  give  a  toast?" 

The  good  girl  had  noticed  the  dull,  bewildered  look  of 
her  godmother,  neglected  and  forgotten,  —  she,  the  mis- 
tress of  that  house,  wearing  almost  the  expression  of  a 
dog  that  is  doubtful  which  master  to  obey,  looking  from 
the  face  of  her  terrible  sister-in-law  to  that  of  Thuillier, 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  117 

consulting  each  countenance,  and  oblivious  of  herself; 
but  joy  on  the  face  of  that  poor  helot,  accustomed  to 
be  nothing,  to  repress  her  ideas,  her  feelings,  had  the 
effect  of  a  pale  wintry  sun  behind  a  mist;  it  barely 
lighted  her  faded,  flabby  flesh.  The  gauze  cap  trimmed 
with  dingy  flowers,  the  hair  ill-dressed,  the  gloomy 
brown  gown,  with  no  ornament  but  a  thick  gold  chain 
—  all,  combined  with  the  expression  of  her  countenance, 
stimulated  the  affection  of  the  young  Celeste,  who  — 
alone  in  the  world  —  knew  the  value  of  that  woman  con- 
demned to  silence  but  aware  of  all  about  her,  suffering 
from  all  yet  consoling  herself  in  God  and  in  the  girl  who 
now  was  watching  her. 

"Yes,  let  the  dear  child  give  us  her  little  toast,"  said 
la  Peyrade  to  Madame  Colleville. 

"Go  on,  my  daughter,"  cried  Colleville;  "here  's  the 
hermitage  still  to  be  drunk —  and  it 's  hoary  with  age," 
he  added. 

"To  my  kind  godmother!  "  said  the  girl,  lowering  her 
glass  respectfully  before  Madame  Thuillier,  and  holding 
it  toward  her. 

The  poor  woman,  startled,  looked  through  a  veil  of 
tears  first  at  her  husband,  and  then  at  Brigitte ;  but  her 
position  in  the  family  was  so  well  known,  and  the 
homage  paid  by  innocence  to  weakness  had  something 
so  beautiful  about  it,  that  the  emotion  was  general ;  the 
men  all  rose  and  bowed  to  Madame  Thuillier. 

"Ah!  Celeste,  I  would  I  had  a  kingdom  to  lay  at  your 
feet,"  murmured  Felix  Phellion. 

The  worthy  Phellion  wiped  away  a  tear.  Dutocq 
himself  was  moved. 

"Oh!  the  charming  child !  "  cried  Mademoiselle  Thuil- 
lier, rising,  and  going  round  to  kiss  her  sister-in-law. 

"My  turn  now!  "  said  Colleville,  posing  like  an  athlete. 
"Now  listen:  To  friendship!  Empty  your  glasses;  refill 
your  glasses.     Good!     To  the  fine  arts,  —  the  flower  of 


118  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

social  life!    Empty  your  glasses;  refill  your  glasses.    To 
another  such  festival  on  the  day  after  election !  " 

"What  is  that  little  bottle  you  have  there?"  said 
Dutocq  to  Mademoiselle  Thuillier. 

"That,"  she  said,  "is  one  of  my  three  bottles  of 
Madame  Amphoux'  liqueur;  the  second  is  for  the  day 
of  Celeste's  marriage;  the  third  for  the  day  on  which 
her  first  child  is  baptized." 

"My  sister  is  losing  her  head,"  remarked  Thuillier 
to  Colleville. 

The  dinner  ended  with  a  toast,  offered  by  Thuillier, 
but  suggested  to  him  by  Theodose  at  the  moment  when 
the  malaga  sparkled  in  the  little  glasses  like  so  many 
rubies. 

"Colleville,  messieurs,  has  drunk  to  friendship.  I 
now  drink,  in  this  most  generous  wine,  To  my  friends !  " 

An  hurrah,  full  of  heartiness,  greeted  that  fine  senti- 
ment, but  Dutocq  remarked  aside  to  The'odose :  — 

"It  is  a  shame  to  pour  such  wine  down  the  throats  of 
such  people." 

"Ah!  if  we  could  only  make  such  wine  as  that!  "  cried 
Zelie,  making  her  glass  ring  by  the  way  in  which  she 
sucked  down  the  Spanish  liquid.  "What  fortunes  we 
could  get! " 

Zelie  had  now  reached  her  highest  point  of  incandes- 
cence, and  was  really  alarming. 

"Yes,"  replied  Minard,  "but  ours  is  made." 

"Don't  you  think,  sister,"  said  Brigitte  to  Madame 
Thuillier,  "that  we  had  better  take  coffee  in  the  salon?" 

Madame  Thuillier  obediently  assumed  the  air  of  mis- 
tress of  the  house,  and  rose. 

"Ah!  you  are  a  great  wizard,"  said  Flavie  Colleville, 
accepting  la  Peyrade's  arm  to  return  to  the  salon. 

"And  yet  I  care  only  to  bewitch  you,"  he  answered. 
"I  think  you  more  enchanting  than  ever  this  evening." 

"Thuillier,"  she  said,  to  evade  the  subject,  "Thuillier 
made  to  think  himself  a  political  character!  oh!  oh!  " 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  119 

"But,  my  dear  Flavie,  half  the  absurdities  of  life  are 
the  result  of  such  conspiracies;  and  men  are  not  alone 
in  these  deceptions.  In  how  many  families  one  sees  the 
husband,  children,  and  friends  persuading  a  silly  mother 
that  she  is  a  woman  of  sense,  or  an  old  woman  of  fifty 
that  she  is  young  and  beautiful.  Hence,  inconceivable 
contrarieties  for  those  who  go  about  the  world  with  their 
eyes  shut.  One  man  owes  his  ill-savored  conceit  to 
the  flattery  of  a  mistress;  another  owes  his  versifying 
vanity  to  those  who  are  paid  to  call  him  a  great  poet. 
Every  family  has  its  great  man ;  and  the  result  is,  as  we 
see  it  in  the  Chamber,  general  obscurity  of  the  lights  of 
France.  Well,  men  of  real  mind  are  laughing  to  them- 
selves about  it,  that 's  all.  You  are  the  mind  and  the 
beauty  of  this  little  circle  of  the  petty  bourgeoisie;  it  is 
this  superiority  which  led  me  in  the  first  instance  to 
worship  you.  I  have  since  longed  to  drag  you  out  of  it; 
for  I  love  you  sincerely  —  more  in  friendship  than  in 
love;  though  a  great  deal  of  love  is  gliding  into  it,"  he 
added,  pressing  her  to  his  heart  under  cover  of  the  recess 
of  a  window  to  which  he  had  taken  her. 

"Madame  Phellion  will  play  the  piano,"  cried  Colle- 
ville.  "We  must  all  dance  to-night  —  bottles  and 
Brigitte's  francs  and  all  the  little  girls!  I'll  go  and 
fetch  my  clarionet." 

He  gave  his  empty  coffee-cup  to  his  wife,  smiling  to 
see  her  so  friendly  with  la  Peyrade. 

"What  have  you  said  and  done  to  my  husband?" 
asked  Flavie,  when  Colleville  had  left  them. 

"Must  I  tell  you  all  our  secrets?  " 

"Ah!  you  don't  love  me,"  she  replied,  looking  at  him 
with  the  coquettish  slyness  of  a  woman  who  is  not  quite 
decided  in  her  mind. 

"Well,  since  you  tell  me  yours,"  he  said,  letting  him- 
self go  to  the  lively  impulse  of  Provencal  gayety,  always 
so  charming  and  apparently  so  natural,  "I  will  not 
conceal  from  you  an  anxiety  in  my  heart." 


120  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

He   took   her   back   to   the   same   window  and   said, 
smiling:  — 

"Colleville,  poor  man,  has  seen  in  me  the  artist 
repressed  by  all  these  bourgeois;  silent  before  them 
because  I  feel  misjudged,  misunderstood,  and  repelled 
by  them.  He  has  felt  the  heat  of  the  sacred  fire  that 
consumes  me.  Yes  I  am,"  he  continued,  in  a  tone  of 
conviction,  "an  artist  in  words  after  the  manner  of 
Berryer;  I  could  make  juries  weep,  by  weeping  myself, 
for  I  'm  as  nervous  as  a  woman.  Your  husband,  who 
detests  the  bourgeoisie,  began  to  tease  me  about  them. 
At  first  we  laughed ;  then,  in  becoming  serious,  he  found 
out  that  I  was  as  strong  as  he.  I  told  him  the  plan  con- 
cocted to  make  something  of  Thuillier,  and  I  showed 
him  all  the  good  he  could  get  himself  out  of  a  political 
puppet.  '  If  it  were  only, '  I  said  to  him,  l  to  make  your- 
self Monsieur  de  Colleville,  and  to  put  your  charming 
wife  where  I  should  like  to  see  her,  as  the  wife  of  a 
receiver-general,  or  deputy.  To  make  yourself  all  that 
you  and  she  ought  to  be,  you  have  only  to  go  and  live 
a  few  years  in  the  Upper  or  Lower  Alps,  in  some  hole 
of  a  town  where  everybody  will  like  you,  and  your  wife 
will  seduce  everybody ;  and  this, '  I  added,  '  you  cannot 
fail  to  obtain,  especially  if  you  give  your  dear  Celeste 
to  some  man  who  can  influence  the  Chamber. '  Good 
reasons,  stated  in  jest,  have  the  merit  of  penetrating 
deeper  into  some  minds  than  if  they  were  given  soberly. 
So  Colleville  and  I  became  the  best  friends  in  the  world. 
Didn't  you  hear  him  say  to  me  at  table,  '  Rascal!  you 
have  stolen  my  speech  '  ?  To-night  we  shall  be  theeing 
and  thouing  each  other.  I  intend  to  have  a  choice  little 
h upper-party  soon,  where  artists,  tied  to  the  proprieties 
at  home,  always  compromise  themselves.  I  '11  invite 
him,  and  that  will  make  us  as  solidly  good  friends  as 
he  is  with'  Thuillier.  There,  my  dear  adored  one,  is 
what  a  profound  sentiment  gives  a  man  the  courage  to 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  121 

produce.  Colleville  must  adopt  me;  so  that  I  may 
visit  at  your  house  by  his  invitation.  But  what  could  n't 
you  make  me  do?  lick  lepers,  swallow  live  toads,  seduce 
Brigitte  —  yes,  if  you  say  so,  I  '11  impale  my  heart  on 
that  great  picket-rail  to  please  you." 

"You  frightened  me  this  morning,"  she  said. 

"But  this  evening  you  are  reassured.  Yes,"  he  added, 
"no  harm  will  ever  happen  to  you  through  me." 

"You  are,  I  must  acknowledge,  a  most  extraordinary 
man." 

"Why,  no!  the  smallest  as  well  as  the  greatest  of  my 
efforts  are  merely  the  reflections  of  the  flame  which  you 
have  kindled.  I  intend  to  be  your  son-in-law  that  we 
may  never  part.  My  wife,  heavens!  what  could  she  be 
to  me  but  a  machine  for  child-bearing?  whereas  the 
divinity,  the  sublime  being  will  be  —  you,"  he  whispered 
in  her  ear. 

"  You  are  Satan ! "  she  said,  in  a  sort  of  terror. 

"No,  I  am  something  of  a  poet,  like  all  the  men  of 
my  region.  Come,  be  my  Josephine!  I'll  go  and  see 
you  to-morrow.  I  have  the  most  axdent  desire  to  see 
where  you  live  and  how  you  live,  the  furniture  you  use, 
the  color  of  your  stuffs,  the  arrangement  of  all  things 
about  you.     I  long  to  see  the  pearl  in  its  shell." 

He  slipped  away  cleverly  after  these  words,  without 
waiting  for  an  answer. 

Flavie,  to  whom  in  all  her  life  love  had  never  taken 
the  language  of  romance,  sat  still,  but  happy,  her  heart 
palpitating,  and  saying  to  herself  that  it  was  very  diffi- 
cult to  escape  such  influence.  For  the  first  time  Theodose 
had  appeared  in  a  pair  of  new  trousers,  with  gray  silk 
stockings  and  pumps,  a  waistcoat  of  black  silk,  and  a 
cravat  of  black  satin  on  the  knot  of  which  shone  a  plain 
gold  pin  selected  with  taste.  He  wore  also  a  new  coat 
in  the  last  fashion,  and  yellow  gloves,  relieved  by  white 
shirt-cuffs ;  he  was  the  only  man  who  had  manners,  or 


122  The  Lester  Bourgeoisie. 

deportment  in  that  salon,  which  was  now  filling  up  for 
the  evening. 

Madame  Pron,  nee  Barniol,  arrived  with  two  school- 
girls, aged  seventeen,  confided  to  her  maternal  care  by 
families  residing  in  Martinique.  Monsieur  Pron,  pro- 
fessor of  rhetoric  in  a  college  presided  over  by  priests, 
belonged  to  the  Phellion  class ;  but,  instead  of  expand- 
ing on  the  surface  in  phrases  and  demonstrations,  and 
posing  as  an  example,  he  was  dry  and  sententious. 
Monsieur  and  Madame  Pron,  the  flowers  of  the  Phellion 
salon,  received  every  Monday.  Though  a  professor,  the 
little  man  danced.  He  enjoyed  great  influence  in  the 
quarter  inclosed  by  the  boulevard  du  Mont-Parnasse, 
the  Luxembourg,  and  the  rue  de  Sevres.  Therefore,  as 
soon  as  Phellion  saw  his  friend,  he  took  him  by  the  arm 
into  a  corner  to  inform  him  of  the  Thuillier  candidacy. 
After  ten  minutes'  consultation  they  both  went  to  find 
Thuillier,  and  the  recess  of  a  window,  opposite  to  that 
where  Flavie  still  sat  absorbed  in  her  reflections,  no 
doubt,  heard  a  trio  worthy,  in  its  way,  of  that  of  the 
Swiss  in  "Guillaume  Tell." 

"Do  you  see,"  said  Theodose,  returning  to  Flavie, 
"the  pure  and  honest  Phellion  intriguing  over  there? 
Give  a  personal  reason  to  a  virtuous  man  and  he  '11  paddle 
in  the  slimiest  puddle;  he  is  hooking  that  little  Pron, 
and  Pron  is  taking  it  all  in,  solely  to  get  your  little 
Celeste  for  Felix  Phellion.  Separate  them,  and  in  ten 
minutes  they  '11  get  together  again,  and  that  young 
Minard  will  be  growling  round  them  like  an  angry  bull- 
dog." 

Felix,  still  under  the  strong  emotion  imparted  to  him  by 
Celeste's  generous  action  and  the  cry  that  came  from 
the  girl's  heart,  though  no  one  but  Madame  Thuillier 
still  thought  of  it,  became  inspired  by  one  of  those 
ingenuous  artfulnesses  which  are  the  honest  charlatanism 
of  true  love;  but  he  was  not  to  the  manner  born  of  it, 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  123 

and  mathematics,  moreover,  made  him  somewhat  absent- 
minded.  He  stationed  himself  near  Madame  Thuillier, 
imagining  that  Madame  Thuillier  would  attract  Celeste 
to  her  side.  This  astute  calculation  succeeded  all  the 
better  because  young  Minard,  who  saw  in  Celeste  nothing 
more  than  a  dot,  had  no  such  sudden  inspiration,  and 
was  drinking  his  coffee  and  talking  politics  with 
Laudigeois,  Monsieur  Barniol,  and  Dutocq  by  order  of 
his  father,  who  was  thinking  and  planning  for  the  general 
election  of  the  legislature  in  1842. 

uWho  wouldn't  love  Celeste?"  said  Felix  to  Madame 
Thuillier. 

"Little  darling,  no  one  in  the  world  loves  me  as  she 
does,"  replied  the  poor  slave,  with  difficulty  restraining 
her  tears. 

"Ah!  madame,  we  both  love  you,"  said  the  candid 
professor,  sincerely. 

"What  are  you  saying  to  each  other?"  asked  Celeste, 
coming  up. 

"My  child,"  said  the  pious  woman,  drawing  her  god- 
daughter down  to  her  and  kissing  her  on  the  forehead. 
"He  said  that  you  both  loved  me." 

"Do  not  be  angry  at  my  presumption,  mademoiselle. 
Let  me  do  all  I  can  to  prove  it,"  murmured  Felix.  "Ah! 
I  cannot  help  it,  I  was  made  this  way;  injustice  revolts 
me  to  the  soul!  Yes,  the  Saviour  of  men  was  right  to 
promise  the  future  to  the  meek  heart,  to  the  slain  lamb! 
A  man  who  did  not  love  you,  Celeste,  must  have 
adored  you  after  that  sublime  impulse  of  yours  at  table. 
Ah,  yes!  innocence  alone  can  console  the  martyr.  You 
are  a  kind  young  girl;  you  will  be  one  of  those  wives 
who  make  the  glory  and  the  happiness  of  a  family. 
Happy  he  whom  you  will  choose !  " 

"Grodmamma,  with  what  eyes  do  you  think  Monsieur 
Felix  sees  me?" 

"He  appreciates  you,  my  little  angel;  I  shall  pray  to 
God  for  both  of  you." 


124  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"If  you  knew  how  happy  I  am  that  my  father  can  do 
a  service  to  Monsieur  Thuillier,  and  how  I  wish  I  could 
be  useful  to  your  brother  —  " 

"In  short,"  said  Celeste,  laughing,  "you  love  us  all." 

"Well,  yes,"  replied  Felix. 

True  love  wraps  itself  in  the  mysteries  of  reserve,  even 
in  its  expression;  it  proves  itself  by  itself;  it  does  not 
feel  the  necessity,  as  a  false  love  does,  of  lighting  a 
conflagration.  By  an  observer  (if  such  a  being  could 
have  glided  into  the  Thuillier  salon)  a  book  might  have 
been  made  in  comparing  the  two  scenes  of  love-making, 
and  in  watching  the  enormous  preparations  of  Theodose 
and  the  simplicity  of  Fe*lix:  one  was  nature,  the  other 
was  society,  —  the  true  and  the  false  embodied.  Noticing 
her  daughter  glowing  with  happiness,  exhaling  her  soul 
through  the  pores  of  her  face,  and  beautiful  with  the 
beauty  of  a  young  girl  gathering  the  first  roses  of  an 
indirect  declaration,  Flavie  had  an  impulse  of  jealousy 
in  her  heart.  She  came  across  to  Celeste  and  said  in 
her  ear :  — 

"You  are  not  behaving  well,  my  daughter;  everybody 
is  observing  you;  you  are  compromising  yourself  by 
talking  so  long  to  Monsieur  Felix  without  knowing 
whether  we  approve  of  it." 

"But,  mamma,  my  godmother  is  here." 

"Ah!  pardon  me,  dear  friend,"  said  Madame  Colle- 
ville;  "I  did  not  notice  you." 

"You  do  as  others  do,"  said  the  poor  nonentity. 

That  reply  stung  Madame  Colleville,  who  regarded  it 
as  a  barbed  arrow.  She  cast  a  haughty  glance  at  Felix 
and  said  to  Celeste,  "Sit  there,  my  daughter,"  seating 
herself  at  the  same  time  beside  Madame  Thuillier  and 
pointing  to  a  chair  on  the  other  side  of  her. 

"I  will  work  myself  to  death,"  said  Felix  to  Madame 
Thuillier.  "I'll  be  a  member  of  the  Academy  of 
Sciences;  I'll  make  some  great  discovery,  and  win  her 
hand  by  force  of  fame." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  125 

"Ah!"  thought  the  poor  woman  to  herself,  "I  ought 
to  have  had  a  gentle,  peaceful,  learned  man  like  that.  I 
might  have  slowly  developed  in  a  life  of  quietness.  It 
was  not  thy  will,  0  God!  but,  I  pray  thee,  unite  and 
bless  these  children;  they  are  made  for  one  another." 

And  she  sat  there,  pensive,  listening  to  the  racket 
made  by  her  sister-in-law  —  a  ten-horse  power  at  work  — 
who  now,  lending  a  hand  to  her  two  servants,  cleared 
the  table,  taking  everything  out  of  the  dining-room  to 
accommodate  the  dancers,  vociferating,  like  the  captain 
of  a  frigate  on  his  quarter-deck  when  taking  his  ship 
into  action:  "Have  you  plenty  of  raspberry  syrup?" 
"Run  out  and  buy  some  more  orgeat!"  "There's  not 
enough  glasses.  Where 's  the  eau  rougie  ?  Take  those 
six  bottles  of  vin  ordinaire  and  make  more.  Mind 
that  Cofflnet,  the  porter,  doesn't  get  any."  "Caroline, 
my  girl,  you  are  to  wait  at  the  sideboard;  you'll  have 
tongue  and  ham  to  slice  in  case  they  dance  till  morn- 
ing. But  mind,  no  waste !  Keep  an  eye  on  everything. 
Pass  me  the  broom;  put  more  oil  in  those  lamps;  don't 
make  blunders.  Arrange  the  remains  of  the  dessert  so 
as  to  make  a  show  on  the  sideboard ;  ask  my  sister  to 
come  and  help  us.  I'm  sure  I  don't  know  what  she  's 
thinking  about,  that  dawdle!  Heavens,  how  slow  she  is! 
Here,  take  away  these  chairs,  they  '11  want  all  the  room 
they  can  get." 

The  salon  was  full  of  Barniols,  Collevilles,  Phellions, 
Laudigeois,  and  many  others  whom  the  announcement 
of  a  dance  at  the  Thuilliers',  spread  about  in  the  Luxem- 
bourg between  two  and  four  in  the  afternoon,  the  hour 
at  which  the  bourgeoisie  takes  its  walk,  had  drawn 
thither. 

"Are  you  ready,  Brigitte?"  said  Colleville,  bolting 
into  the  dining-room;  "it  is  nine  o'clock,  and  they  are 
packed  as  close  as  herrings  in  the  salon.  Cardot,  his 
wife  and  son  and  daughter  and  future  son-in-law  have 


126  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

just  come,  accompanied  by  that  young  Vinet;  the  whole 
faubourg  Saint  Antoine  is  debouching.  Can't  we  move 
the  piano  in  here? " 

Then  he  gave  the  signal,  by  tuning  his  clarionet,  the 
joyous  sounds  of  which  were  greeted  with  huzzas  from 
the  salon. 

It  is  useless  to  describe  a  ball  of  this  kind.  The 
toilets,  faces,  and  conversations  were  all  in  keeping 
with  one  fact  which  will  surely  suffice  even  the  dullest 
imagination;  they  passed  round,  on  tarnished  and  dis- 
colored trays,  common  tumblers  filled  with  wine,  eau 
rougie,  and  eau  sucree.  The  trays  on  which  were  glasses 
of  orgeat  and  glasses  of  syrup  and  water  appeared  only 
at  long  intervals.  There  were  five  card-tables  and 
twenty-five  players,  and  eighteen  dancers  of  both  sexes. 
At  one  o'clock  in  the  morning,  all  present  —  Madame 
Thuillier,  Mademoiselle  Brigitte,  Madame  Phellion,  even 
Phellion  himself  —  were  dragged  into  the  vivacities  of  a 
country-dance,  vulgarly  called  "La  Boulangere,"  in 
which  Dutocq  figured  with  a  veil  over  his  head,  after  the 
manner  of  a  Kabyl.  The  servants  who  were  waiting 
to  escort  their  masters  home,  and  those  of  the  house- 
hold, were  audience  to  this  performance;  and  after 
the  interminable  dance  had  lasted  one  whole  hour  it 
was  proposed  to  carry  Brigitte  in  triumph  when  she 
gave  the  announcement  that  supper  was  served.  This 
circumstance  made  her  see  the  necessity  of  hiding 
a  dozen  bottles  of  old  burgundy.  In  short,  the  com- 
pany had  amused  themselves  so  well,  the  matrons  as 
well  as  the  young  girls,  that  Thuillier  found  occasion  to 
say:  — 

"Well,  well,  this  morning  we  little  thought  we  should 
have  such  a  fete  to-night." 

"There  's  never  more  pleasure,"  said  the  notary  Cardot, 
"than  in  just  such  improvised  balls.  Don't  talk  to  me 
of  parties  where  everybody  stands  on  ceremony." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  127 

This  opinion,  we  may  remark,  is  a  standing  axiom 
among  the  bourgeoisie. 

"Well,  for  my  part,"  said  Madame  Minard,  "I  prefer 
the  dignified  old  ways." 

"We  did  n't  mean  that  for  you,  madame;  your  salon 
is  the  chosen  haunt  of  pleasure,"  said  Dutocq. 

When  "La  Boulangere "  came  to  an  end,  Theodose 
pulled  Dutocq  from  the  sideboard  where  he  was  prepar- 
ing to  eat  a  slice  of  tongue,  and  said  to  him:  — 

"Let  us  go;  we  must  be  at  Cerizet' s  very  early  in 
the  morning;  we  ought  both  of  us  to  think  over  that 
affair;  it  is  not  so  easy  to  manage  as  Cerizet  seems  to 
imagine." 

"Why  not?'*  asked  Dutocq,  bringing  his  slice  of 
tongue  to  eat  in  the  salon. 

"Don't  you  know  the  law?  " 

"I  know  enough  of  it  to  be  aware  of  the  dangers  of 
this  affair.  If  that  notary  wants  the  house  and  we  filch 
it  from  him,  there  are  means  by  which  he  can  recover  it; 
he  can  put  himself  into  the  skin  of  a  registered  creditor. 
By  the  present  legal  system  relating  to  mortgages,  when 
a  house  is  sold  at  the  request  of  creditors,  if  the  price 
obtained  for  it  at  auction  is  not  enough  to  pay  all  debts, 
the  owners  have  the  right  to  bid  it  in  and  hold  it  for  a 
higher  sum ;  now  the  notary,  seeing  himself  caught,  may 
back  out  of  the  sale  in  that  way." 

"Well,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "it  needs  attention." 

"Very  good,"  replied  Dutocq,  "we'll  go  and  see 
Cerizet." 

These  words,  "go  and  see  Cerizet,"  were  overheard 
by  Minard,  who  was  following  the  two  associates;  but 
they  offered  no  meaning  to  his  mind.  The  two  men 
were  so  outside  of  his  own  course  and  projects  that  he 
heard  them  without  listening  to  them. 

"This  has  been  one  of  the  finest  days  in  our  lives," 
said  Brigitte   to   her   brother,    when  she   found   herself 


128  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

alone  with  him  in  the  deserted  salon,  at  half -past  two 
in  the  morning.  "  What  a  distinction !  to  be  thus  selected 
by  your  fellow-citizens  1 " 

"Don't  be  mistaken  about  it,  Brigitte;  we  owe  it  all, 
my  child,  to  one  man." 

"Whatman?" 

44  To  our  friend,  la  Peyrade." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  129 


IX. 

THE    BANKER   OF   THE    POOR. 

It  was  not  on  the  next  day,  Monday,  but  on  the  follow- 
ing day,  Tuesday,  that  Dutocq  and  Theodose  went  to 
see  Cerizet,  the  former  having  called  la  Peyrade's  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  Cerizet  always  absented  himself  on 
Sundays  and  Mondays,  taking  advantage  of  the  total 
absence  of  clients  on  those  days,  which  are  devoted  by 
the  populace  to  debauch.  The  house  toward  which  they 
directed  their  steps  is  one  of  the  striking  features  in  the 
faubourg  Saint-Jacques,  and  it  is  quite  as  important  to 
study  it  here  as  it  was  to  study  those  of  Phellion  and 
Thuillier.  It  is  not  known  (true,  no  commission  has 
yet  been  appointed  to  examine  this  phenomenon),  no  one 
knows  why  certain  quarters  become  degraded  and  vulgar- 
ized, morally  as  well  as  materially;  why,  for  instance,  the 
ancient  residence  of  the  court  and  the  church,  the  Luxem- 
bourg and  the  Latin  quarter,  have  become  what  they  are 
to-day,  in  spite  of  the  presence  of  the  finest  palaces  in 
the  world,  in  spite  of  the  bold  cupola  of  Sainte -Genevieve, 
that  of  Mansard  on  the  Val-de-Grace,  and  the  charms  of 
the  Jardin  des  Plantes.  One  asks  one's  self  why  the 
elegance  of  life  has  left  that  region ;  why  the  Vauquer 
houses,  the  Phellion  and  the  Thuillier  houses  now  swarm 
with  tenants  and  boarders,  on  the  site  of  so  many  noble 
and  religious  buildings,  and  why  such  mud  and  dirty 
trades  and  poverty  should  have  fastened  on  a  hilly  piece 
of  ground,  instead  of  spreading  out  upon  the  flat  land 
beyond  the  confines  of  the  ancient  city. 

The  angel  whose  beneficence  once  hovered  above  this 
9 


130  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

quarter  being  dead,  usury,  on  the  lowest  scale,  rushed 
in  and  took  his  place.  To  the  old  judge,  Popinot,  suc- 
ceeded Cerizet;  and  strange  to  say,  —  a  fact  which  it  is 
well  to  study,  —  the  effect  produced,  socially  speaking, 
was  much  the  same.  Popinot  loaned  money  without 
interest,  and  was  willing  to  lose;  Cerizet  lost  nothing, 
and  compelled  the  poor  to  work  hard  and  stay  virtuous. 
The  poor  adored  Popinot,  but  they  did  not  hate  Cerizet. 
Here,  in  this  region,  revolves  the  lowest  wheel  of  Parisian 
financiering.  At  the  top,  Nucingen  &  Co.,  the  Kellers, 
du  Tillet,  and  the  Mongenods;  a  little  lower  down,  the 
Palmas,  Gigonnets,  and  Gobsecks ;  lower  still,  the  Samo- 
nons,  Chaboisseaus,  and  Barbets;  and  lastly  (after  the 
pawn-shops)  comes  this  king  of  usury,  who  spreads  his 
nets  at  the  corners  of  the  streets  to  entangle  all  miseries 
and  miss  none,  —  Cerizet,  "money  lender  by  the  little 
week." 

The  frogged  frock-coat  will  have  prepared  you  for  the 
den  in  which  this  convicted  stock-broker  carried  on  his 
present  business. 

The  house  was  humid  with  saltpetre ;  the  walls,  sweat- 
ing moisture,  were  enamelled  all  over  with  large  slabs  of 
mould.  Standing  at  the  corner  of  the  rue  des  Postes 
and  the  rue  des  Poules,  it  presented  first  a  ground-floor, 
occupied  partly  by  a  shop  for  the  sale  of  the  commonest 
kind  of  wine,  painted  a  coarse  bright  red,  decorated  with 
curtains  of  red  calico,  furnished  with  a  leaden  counter, 
and  guarded  by  formidable  iron  bars.  Above  the  gate  of 
an  odious  alley  hung  a  frightful  lantern,  on  which  were 
the  words  "Night  lodgings  here."  The  outer  walls  were 
covered  with  iron  crossbars,  showing,  apparently,  the 
insecurity  of  the  building,  which  was  owned  by  the  wine- 
merchant,  who  also  inhabited  the  entresol.  The  widow 
Poiret  (nee  Michonneau)  kept  furnished  lodgings  on  the 
first,  second,  and  third  floors,  consisting  of  single  rooms 
for  workmen  and  for  the  poorest  class  of  students. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  131 

Cerizet  occupied  one  room  on  the  ground -floor  and 
another  in  the  entresol,  to  which  he  mounted  by  an 
interior  staircase;  this  entresol  looked  out  upon  a  hor- 
rible paved  court,  from  which  arose  mephitic  odors. 
Cerizet  paid  forty  francs  a  month  to  the  widow  Poiret 
for  his  breakfast  and  dinner ;  he  thus  conciliated  her  by 
becoming  her  boarder;  he  also  made  himself  acceptable 
to  the  wine-merchant  by  procuring  him  an  immense  sale 
of  wines  and  liquors  among  his  clients  —  profits  realized 
before  sunrise ;  the  wine-shop  beginning  operations  about 
three  in  the  morning  in  summer,  and  five  in  winter. 

The  hour  of  the  great  Market,  which  so  many  of  his 
clients,  male  and  female,  attended,  was  the  determining 
cause  of  Cerizet' s  early  hours.  The  Sieur  Cadenet,  the 
wine-merchant,  in  view  of  the  custom  which  he  owed  to 
the  usurer,  had  let  him  the  two  rooms  for  the  low  price 
of  eighty  francs  a  year,  and  had  given  him  a  lease  for 
twelve  years,  which  Cerizet  alone  had  the  right  to  break, 
without  paying  indemnity,  at  three  months'  notice. 
Cadenet  always  carried  in  a  bottle  of  excellent  wine  for 
the  dinner  of  this  useful  tenant;  and  when  Cerizet  was 
short  of  money  he  had  only  to  say  to  his  friend, 
"Cadenet,  lend  me  a  few  hundred  francs,"  —  loans 
which  he  faithfully  repaid. 

Cadenet,  it  was  said,  had  proof  of  the  widow  Poiret 
having  deposited  in  Cerizet's  hands  some  two  thousand 
francs  for  investment,  which  may  explain  the  progress 
of  the  latter' s  affairs  since  the  day  when  he  first  took  up 
his  abode  in  the  quarter,  supplied  with  a  last  note  of 
a  thousand  francs  and  Dutocq's  protection.  Cadenet, 
prompted  by  a  cupidity  which  success  increased,  had 
proposed,  early  in  the  year,  to  put  twenty  thousand 
francs  into  the  hands  of  his  friend  Cerizet.  But  Cerizet 
had  positively  declined  them,  on  the  ground  that  he  ran 
risks  of  a  nature  to  become  a  possible  cause  of  dispute 
with  associates. 


132  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"I  could  only,"  he  said  to  Cadenet,  "take  them  at  six 
per  cent  interest,  and  you  can  do  better  than  that  in 
your  own  business.  We  will  go  into  partnership  later, 
if  you  like,  in  some  serious  enterprise,  some  good  oppor- 
tunity which  may  require,  say,  fifty  thousand  francs. 
When  you  have  got  that  sum  to  invest,  let  me  know, 
and  we  '11  talk  about  it." 

Cterizet  had  only  suggested  the  affair  of  the  house  to 
Theodose  after  making  sure  that  among  the  three,  Madame 
Poiret,  Cadenet,  and  himself,  it  was  impossible  to  raise 
the  full  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  francs. 

The  "lender  by  the  little  week  "was  thus  in  perfect 
safety  in  his  den,  where  he  could  even,  if  necessity  came, 
appeal  to  the  law.  On  certain  mornings  there  might  be 
seen  as  many  as  sixty  or  eighty  persons,  men  as  often 
as  women,  either  in  the  wine-shop,  or  the  alley,  or  sitting 
on  the  staircase,  for  the  distrustful  Cerizet  would  only 
admit  six  persons  at  a  time  into  his  office.  The  first 
comers  were  first  served,  and  each  had  to  go  by  his 
number,  which  the  wine-merchant,  or  his  shop-boy,  affixed 
to  the  hats  of  the  men  and  the  backs  of  the  women. 
Sometimes  the  clients  would  sell  to  each  other  (as 
hackney-coachmen  do  on  the  cabstands),  head  numbers 
for  tail  numbers.  On  certain  days,  when  the  market 
business  was  pressing,  a  head  number  was  often  sold  for 
a  glass  of  brandy  and  a  sou.  The  numbers,  as  they  issued 
from  Cerizet's  oifice,  called  up  the  succeeding  numbers; 
and  if  any  disputes  arose  Cadenet  put  a  stop  to  the  fray 
at  once  by  remarking:  — 

44If  you  get  the  police  here  you  won't  gain  anything; 
He  '11  shut  up  shop." 

He  was  Cerizet's  name.  When,  in  the  course  of  the 
day,  3ome  hapless  woman,  without  an  atom  of  food  in 
her  room,  and  seeing  her  children  pale  with  hunger, 
would  come  to  borrow  ten  or  twenty  sous,  she  would  say 
to  the  wine-merchant  anxiously :  — 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  133 

"Is  He  there?" 

Cadenet,  a  short,  stout  man,  dressed  in  blue,  with 
outer  sleeves  of  black  stuff  and  a  wine-merchant's  apron, 
and  always  wearing  a  cap,  seemed  an  angel  to  these 
mothers  when  he  replied  to  them :  — 

"i/e  told  me  you  were  an  honest  woman  and  I  might 
give  you  forty  sous.  You  know  what  you  must  do 
about  it  —  " 

And,  strange  to  say,  He  was  blessed  by  these  poor 
people,  even  as  they  had  lately  blessed  Popinot. 

But  Cerizet  was  cursed  on  Sunday  mornings  when 
accounts  were  settled;  and  they  cursed  him  even  more 
on  Saturdays,  when  it  was  necessary  to  work  in  order  to 
repay  the  sum  borrowed  with  interest.  But,  after  all, 
he  was  Providence,  he  was  God  from  Tuesday  to  Friday 
of  every  week. 

The  room  which  he  made  his  office,  formerly  the  kitchen 
of  the  next  floor,  was  bare;  the  beams  of  the  ceiling  had 
been  whitewashed,  but  still  bore  marks  of  smoke.  The 
walls,  along  which  he  had  put  benches,  and  the  stone 
floor,  retained  and  gave  out  dampness.  The  fireplace, 
where  the  crane  remained,  was  partly  filled  by  an  iron 
stove  in  which  Cerizet  burned  sea-coal  when  the  weather 
was  severe.  A  platform  about  halt  a  foot  high  and 
eight  feet  square  extended  from  the  edge  of  the  fire- 
place; on  it  was  fastened  a  common  table  and  an  arm- 
chair with  a  round  cushion  covered  with  green  leather. 
Behind  him,  Cerizet  had  sheathed  the  walls  with  planks; 
also  protecting  himself  with  a  little  wooden  screen, 
painted  white,  from  the  draught  between  the  window  and 
door ;  but  this  screen,  made  of  two  leaves,  was  so  placed 
that  the  warmth  from  the  stove  reached  him.  The 
window  had  enormous  inside  shutters  of  cast-iron,  held, 
when  closed,  by, a  bar.  The  door  commanded  respect 
by  an  armor  of  the  same  character. 

At  the  farther  end  of  this  room,  in  a  corner,  was  a 


134  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

spiral  staircase,  coming,  evidently,  from  some  pulled- 
down  shop,  and  bought  in  the  rue  Chapon  by  Cadenet, 
who  had  fitted  it  through  the  ceiling  into  the  room  in  the 
entresol  occupied  by  Cerizet.  In  order  to  prevent  all 
communication  with  the  upper  floors,  Cerizet  had  exacted 
that  the  door  of  that  room  which  opened  on  the  com- 
mon landing  should  be  walled  up.  The  place  had  thus 
become  a  fortress.  The  bedroom  above  had  a  cheap 
carpet  bought  for  twenty  francs,  an  iron  bedstead,  a 
bureau,  three  chairs,  and  an  iron  safe,  made  by  a  good 
workman,  which  Cerizet  had  bought  at  a  bargain.  He 
shaved  before  a  glass  on  the  chimney-piece;  he  owned 
two  pairs  of  cotton  sheets  and  six  cotton  shirts ;  the  rest 
of  his  visible  wardrobe  was  of  the  same  character. 
Cadenet  had  once  seen  Cerizet  dressed  like  a  dandy  of 
the  period ;  he  must,  therefore,  have  kept  hidden,  in  some 
drawer  of  his  bureau,  a  complete  disguise  with  which  he 
could  go  to  the  opera,  see  the  world,  and  not  be  recog- 
nized, for,  had  it  not  been  that  Cadenet  heard  his  voice, 
he  would  certainly  have  asked  him  who  he  was. 

What  pleased  the  clients  of  this  man  most  was  his 
joviality  and  his  repartees;  he  talked  their  language. 
Cadenet,  his  two  shop-men,  and  Cerizet,  living  in  the 
midst  of  dreadful  misery,  behaved  with  the  calmness  of 
undertakers  in  presence  of  afflicted  heirs,  of  old  ser- 
geants of  the  Guard  among  heaps  of  dead.  They  no 
more  shuddered  on  hearing  cries  of  hunger  and  despair 
than  surgeons  shudder  at  the  cries  of  their  patients  in 
hospital;  they  said,  as  the  soldiers  and  the  dressers 
said,  the  perfunctory  words,  "Have  patience!  a  little 
courage!  What's  the  good  of  grieving?  Suppose  you 
kill  yourself,  what  then?  One  gets  accustomed  to  every- 
thing ;  be  reasonable !  " 

Though  Cerizet  took  the  precaution  to  hide  the  money 
necessary  for  his  morning  operations  in  the  hollow  seat 
of  the  chair  in  which  he  sat,  taking  out  no  more  than  a 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  135 

hundred  francs  at  a  time,  which  he  put  in  the  pockets  of 
his  trousers,  never  dipping  into  the  funds  of  the  chair 
except  between  the  entrance  of  two  batches  of  clients 
(keeping  his  door  locked  and  not  opening  it  till  all  was 
safely  stowed  in  his  pockets),  he  had  really  nothing  to 
fear  from  the  various  despairs  which  found  their  way 
from  all  sides  to  this  rendezvous  of  misery.  Certainly, 
there  are  many  different  ways  of  being  honest  and  vir- 
tuous; and  the  "Monograph  of  Virtue"  has  no  other 
basis  than  this  social  axiom.1  A  man  is  false  to  his 
conscience;  he  fails,  apparently,  in  delicacy;  he  forfeits 
that  bloom  of  honor  which,  though  lost,  does  not,  as 
yet,  mean  general  disrepute;  at  last,  however,  he  fails 
decidedly  in  honor;  if  he  falls  into  the  hands  of  the  cor- 
rectional police,  he  is  not,  as  ye't,  guilty  of  crime  before 
the  court  of  assizes;  but  after  he  is  branded  with  infamy 
by  the  verdict  of  a  jury  he  may  still  be  honored  at  the 
galleys  for  the  species  of  honor  and  integrity  practised 
by  criminals  among  themselves,  which  consists  in  not 
betraying  each  other,  in  sharing  booty  loyally,  and  in 
running  all  dangers.  Well,  this  last  form  of  honor  — 
which  is  perhaps  a  calculation,  a  necessity,  the  practice 
of  which  offers  certain  opportunities  for  grandeur  to  the 
guilty  man  and  the  possibility  of  a  return  to  good  — 
reigned  absolutely  between  Cerizet  and  his  clients. 
Never  did  Cerizet  make  an  error,  nor  his  poor  people 
either;  neither  side  ever  denied  what  was  due,  either 
capital  or  interests.  Many  a  time  Cerizet,  who  was  born 
among  the  people,  corrected  from  one  week  to  another 
some  accidental  error,  to  the  benefit  of  a  poor  man  who 
had  never  discovered  it.  He  was  called  a  Jew,  but  an 
honest  one,  and  his  word  in  that  city  of  sorrows  was 
sacred.  A  woman  died,  causing  a  loss  to  him  of  thirty 
francs : 

1  A  book  on  which  the  author  has  been  at  work  since  1833,  the  year 
in  which  it  was  first  announced.     [Author's  note.] 


136  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"See  my  profits!  there  they  go!"  he  said  to  his 
assemblage,  "and  you  howl  upon  me!  You  know  I  '11 
never  trouble  the  brats;  in  fact,  Cadenet  has  already 
taken  them  bread  and  heel-taps." 

After  that  it  was  said  of  him  in  both  faubourgs :  — 

"He  is  not  a  bad  fellow!  " 

The  "loan  by  the  little  week,"  as  interpreted  by  Cerizet, 
is  not,  considering  all  things,  so  cruel  a  thing  as  the 
pawn-shop.  Cerizet  loaned  ten  francs  Tuesday  on  con- 
dition of  receiving  twelve  francs  Sunday  morning.  In 
five  weeks  he  doubled  his  capital ;  but  he  had  to  make 
many  compromises.  His  kindness  consisted  in  accept- 
ing, from  time  to  time,  eleven  francs  and  fifty  centimes ; 
sometimes  the  whole  interest  was  still  owing.  When  he 
gave  fifty  francs  for  sixty  to  a  fruit-stall  man,  or  a  hun- 
dred francs  for  one  hundred  and  twenty  to  a  seller  of 
peat-fuel,  he  ran  great  risks. 

On  reaching  the  rue  des  Poules  through  the  rue  des 
Postes,  Theodose  and  Dutocq  saw  a  great  assemblage  of 
men  and  women,  and  by  the  light  which  the  wine- 
merchant's  little  oil-lamps  cast  upon  these  groups,  they 
were  horrified  at  beholding  that  mass  of  red,  seamed, 
haggard  faces;  solemn  with  suffering,  withered,  dis- 
torted, swollen  with  wine,  pallid  from  liquor;  some 
threatening,  others  resigned,  some  sarcastic  or  jeering, 
others  besotted;  all  rising  from  the  midst  of  those 
terrible  rags,  which  no  designer  can  surpass  in  his  most 
extravagant  caricatures. 

"I  shall  be  recognized,"  said  Theodose,  pulling  Dutocq 
away;  "we  have  done  a  foolish  thing  to  come  here  at 
this  hour  and  take  him  in  the  midst  of  his  business." 

"All  the  more  that  Claparon  may  be  sleeping  in  his 
lair,  the  interior  of  which  we  know  nothing  about.  Yes, 
there  are  dangers  for  you,  but  none  for  me;  I  shall  be 
thought  to  have  business  with  my  copying-clerk,  and  I  '11 
go  and  tell  him  to  come  and  dine  with  us ;  this  is  court 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  137 

day,  so  we  can't  have  him  to  breakfast.  I  '11  tell  him  to 
meet  us  at  the  '  Chaumiere '  in  one  of  the  garden  dining- 
rooms." 

"Bad;  anybody  could  listen  to  us  there  without  being 
seen,"  said  la  Peyrade.  "I  prefer  the  'Petit  Rocher  de 
Cancale; '  we  can  go  into  a  private  room  and  speak  low." 

"But  suppose  you  are  seen  with  Cerizet?  " 

"Well,  then,  let 's  go  to  the  '  Cheval  Rouge,'  quai  de  la 
Tournelle." 

"That's  best;  seven  o'clock;  nobody  will  be  there 
then." 

Dutocq  advanced  alone  into  the  midst  of  that  congress 
of  beggars,  and  he  heard  his  own  name  repeated  from 
mouth  to  mouth,  for  he  could  hardly  fail  to  encounter 
among  them  some  jail-bird  familiar  with  the  judge's 
office,  just  as  Theoclose  was  certain  to  have  met  a  client. 

In  these  quarters  the  justice-of-peace  is  the  supreme 
authority;  all  legal  contests  stop  short  at  his  office, 
especially  since  the  law  was  passed  giving  to  those  judges 
sovereign  power  in  all  cases  of  litigation  involving  not 
over  one  hundred  and  forty  francs.  A  way  was  made 
for  the  judge's  clerk,  who  was  not  less  feared  than  the 
judge  himself.  He  saw  women  seated  on  the  staircase; 
a  horrible  display  of  pallor  and  suffering  of  many  kinds. 
Dutocq  was  almost  asphyxiated  when  he  opened  the  door 
of  the  room  in  which  already  sixty  persons  had  left  their 
odors. 

"Your  number?  your  number?"  cried  several  voices. 

"Hold  your  jaw!  "  cried  a  gruff  voice  from  the  street, 
"that's  the  pen  of  the  judge." 

Profound  silence  followed.  Dutocq  found  his  copying 
clerk  clothed  in  a  jacket  of  yellow  leather  like  that  of 
the  gloves  of  the  gendarmerie,  beneath  which  he  wore  an 
ignoble  waistcoat  of  knitted  wool.  The  reader  must 
imagine  the  man's  diseased  head  issuing  from  this 
species  of  scabbard  and  covered  with  a  miserable  Madras 


138  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

handkerchief,  which,  leaving  to  view  the  forehead  and 
neck,  gave  to  that  head,  by  the  gleam  of  a  tallow  candle 
of  twelve  to  the  pound,  its  naturally  hideous  and  threaten- 
ing character. 

"It  can't  be  done  that  way,  papa  Lantimeche,"  Cerizet 
was  saying  to  a  tall  old  man,  seeming  to  be  about  seventy 
years  of  age,  who  was  standing  before  him  with  a  red 
woollen  cap  in  his  hand,  exhibiting  a  bald  head,  and  a 
breast  covered  with  white  hairs  visible  through  his  mis- 
erable linen  jacket.  "Tell  me  exactly  what  you  want  to 
undertake.  One  hundred  francs,  even  on  condition  of 
getting  back  one  hundred  and  twenty,  can't  be  let  loose 
that  way,  like  a  dog  in  a  church  —  " 

The  five  other  applicants,  among  whom  were  two 
women,  both  with  infants,  one  knitting,  the  other  suck- 
ling her  child,  burst  out  laughing. 

When  Cerizet  saw  Dutocq,  he  rose  respectfully  and 
went  rather  hastily  to  meet  him,  adding  to  his  client:  — 

"Take  time  to  reflect;  for,  don't  you  see?  it  makes 
me  doubtful  to  have  such  a  sum  as  that,  one  hundred 
francs!  asked  for  by  an  old  journeyman  locksmith!  " 

"But  I  tell  you  it  concerns  an  invention,"  cried  the 
old  workman. 

"An  invention  and  one  hundred  francs!  "  said  Dutocq. 
"You  don't  know  the  laws;  you  must  take  out  a  patent, 
and  that  costs  two  thousand  francs,  and  you  want 
influence." 

"All  that  is  true,"  said  Ce'rizet,  who,  however,  reck- 
oned a  good  deal  on  such  chances.  "Come  to-morrow 
morning,  papa  Lantimeche,  at  six  o'clock,  and  we  '11 
talk  it  over;  you  can't  talk  inventions  in  public." 

Cerizet  then  turned  to  Dutocq  whose  first  words  were :  — 

"If  the  thing  turns  out  well,  half  profits!  " 

"Why  did  you  get  up  at  this  time  in  the  morning  to 
come  here  and  say  that  to  me?"  demanded  the  distrust- 
ful  Cerizet,    already  displeased    with   the    mention   of 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  139 

"half  profits."  "You  could  have  seen  me  as  usual  at 
the  office." 

And  he  looked  askance  at  Dutocq;  the  latter,  while 
telling  him  his  errand  and  speaking  of  Claparon  and  the 
•necessity  of  pushing  forward  in  the  Theodose  affair, 
seemed  confused. 

"All  the  same  you  could  have  seen  me  this  morning  at 
the  office,"  repeated  Cerizet,  conducting  his  visitor  to 
the  door. 

"  There  's  a  man,"  thought  he,  as  he  returned  to  his  seat, 
"who  seems  to  me  to  have  breathed  on  his  lantern  so  that 
I  may  not  see  clear.  Well,  well,  I  '11  give  up  that  place 
of  copying  clerk.  Ha!  your  turn,  little  mother!"  he 
cried;  "you  invent  children!  That's  amusing  enough, 
though  the  trick  is  well  known." 

It  is  all  the  more  useless  to  relate  the  conversation 
which  took  place  between  the  three  confederates  at  the 
"Cheval  Rouge,"  because  the  arrangements  there  con- 
cluded were  the  basis  of  certain  confidences  made,  as  we 
shall  see,  by  Theodose  to  Mademoiselle  Thuillier;  but  it 
is  necessary  to  remark  that  the  cleverness  displayed  by 
la  Peyrade  seemed  almost  alarming  to  Cerizet  and 
Dutocq.  After  this  conference,  the  banker  of  the  poor, 
finding  himself  in  company  with  such  powerful  players, 
had  it  in  mind  to  make  sure  of  his  own  stake  at  the  first 
chance.  To  win  the  game  at  any  price  over  the  heads  of 
the  ablest  gamblers,  by  cheating  if  necessary,  is  the 
inspiration  of  a  special  sort  of  vanity  peculiar  to  friends 
of  the  green  cloth.  Hence  came  the  terrible  blow  which 
la  Peyrade  was  destined  to  receive. 

He  knew  his  two  associates  well;  and  therefore,  in 
spite  of  the  perpetual  activity  of  his  intellectual  forces, 
in  spite  of  the  perpetual  watchfulness  his  personality  of 
ten  faces  required,  nothing  fatigued  him  as  much  as  the 
part  he  had  to  play  with  his  two  accomplices.  Dutocq 
was  a  great  knave,  and  Cerizet  had  once  been  a  comic 


140  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

actor;  they  were  both  experts  in  humbug.  A  motionless 
face  like  Talleyrand's  would  have  made  them  break  at 
once  with  the  Provencal,  who  was  now  in  their  clutches; 
it  was  necessary,  therefore,  that  he  should  make  a  show 
of  ease  and  confidence  and  of  playing  above  board  —  the 
very  height  of  art  in  such  affairs.  To  delude  the  pit  is 
an  everyday  triumph,  but  to  deceive  Mademoiselle  Mars, 
Frederic  Lemaitre,  Potier,  Talma,  Monrose,  is  the  acme 
of  art. 

This  conference  at  the  "Cheval  Rouge"  had  therefore 
the  result  of  giving  to  la  Peyrade,  who  was  fully  as 
sagacious  as  Cerizet,  a  secret  fear,  which,  during  the 
latter  period  of  this  daring  game,  so  fired  his  blood  and 
heated  his  brain  that  there  came  moments  when  he  fell 
into  the  morbid  condition  of  the  gambler,  who  follows 
with  his  eye  the  roll  of  the  ball  on  which  he  has  staked 
his  last  penny.  The  senses  then  have  a  lucidity  in  their 
action  and  the  mind  takes  a  range,  which  human  knowl- 
edge has  no  means  of  measuring. 


The  Leaser  Bourgeoisie.  141 


HOW    BRIGITTE    WAS    WON. 

The  day  after  this  conference  at  the  "Cheval  Rouge," 
la  Peyrade  went  to  dine  with  the  Thuilliers,  and  on  the 
commonplace  pretext  of  a  visit  to  pay,  Thuillier  carried 
off  his  wife,  leaving  Theodose  alone  with  Brigitte. 
Neither  Thuillier,  nor  his  sister,  nor  Theodose,  were  the 
dupes  of  this  comedy;  but  the  old  beau  of  the  Empire 
considered  the  manoeuvre  a  piece  of  diplomacy. 

"Young  man,  do  not  take  advantage  of  my  sister's 
innocence;  respect  it,1'  said  Thuillier  solemnly,  as  he 
departed. 

"Mademoiselle,"  said  Theodose,  drawing  his  chair 
closer  to  the  sofa  where  Brigitte  sat  knitting,  "have  you 
thought  of  inducing  the  business  men  of  the  arrondisse- 
ment  to  support  Thuillier's  interests?" 

"How  can  1?"  she  said. 

"  Why !  you  are  in  close  business  relations  with  Barbet 
and  Metivier." 

"Ah!  you  are  right!  Faith!  you  are  no  blunderer!" 
she  said  after  a  pause. 

"When  we  love  our  friends,  we  serve  them,"  he  replied, 
sententiously. 

To  capture  Brigitte  would  be  like  carrying  the  redoubt 
of  the  Moskowa,  the  culminating  strategic  point.  But 
it  was  necessary  to  possess  that  old  maid  as  the  devil 
was  supposed  in  the  middle  ages  to  possess  men,  and 
in  a  way  to  make  any  awakening  impossible  for  her. 
For  the  last  three  days  la  Peyrade  had  been  measuring 
himself  for  the  task;  he  had  carefully  reconnoitred  the 
ground  to  see  all  difficulty.     Flattery,  that  almost  infal- 


142  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

lible  means  in  able  bands,  would  certainly  miscarry  with 
a  woman  who  for  years  had-  known  she  had  no  beauty. 
But  a  man  of  strong  will  finds  nothing  impregnable;  the 
Lamarques  could  never  have  failed  to  take  Capri.  There- 
fore, one  thing  must  be  omitted  from  the  memorable 
scene  which  was  now  to  take  place ;  all  things  about  it 
had  their  own  importance,  —  inflections  of  the  voice, 
pauses,  glances,  lowered  eyes. 

"But,"  rejoined  Brigitte,  "you  have  already  proved  to 
us  your  affection." 

"Your  brother  has  told  you  —  ?  " 

"No,  he  merely  told  me  that  you  had  something  to  tell 
me." 

"Yes,  mademoiselle,  I  have;  for  you  are  the  man  of 
the  family.  In  reflecting  on  this  matter,  I  find  many 
dangers  for  myself,  such  as  a  man  only  risks  for  his 
nearest  and  dearest.  It  involves  a  fortune;  thirty  to 
forty  thousand  francs  a  year,  and  not  the  slightest  specu- 
lation —  a  piece  of  landed  property.  The  hope  of  help- 
ing Thuillier  to  win  such  a  fortune  enticed  me  from  the 
first.  'It  fascinates  me,'  I  said  to  him  —  for,  unless  a 
man  is  an  absolute  fool,  he  can't  help  asking  himself: 
4  Why  should  he  care  to  do  us  all  this  good  ? '  Sol  told 
him  frankly  that  in  working  for  his  interests,  I  flattered 
myself  I  was  working  for  my  own,  as  I  '11  explain  to  you 
later.  If  he  wishes  to  be  deputy,  two  things  are  abso- 
lutely necessary:  to  comply  with  the  law  as  to  property, 
and  to  win  for  his  name  some  sort  of  public  celebrity. 
If  I  myself  push  my  devotion  to  the  point  of  helping  him 
to  write  a  book  on  public  financiering  —  or  anything 
else,  no  matter  what  —  which  would  give  him  that  celeb- 
rity, I  ought  also  to  think  of  the  other  matter,  his  prop- 
erty —  it  would  be  absurd  to  expect  you  to  give  him  this 
house  —  " 

"For  my  brother?  Why,  I  'd  put  it  in  his  name  to- 
morrow," cried  Brigitte.     "You  don't  know  me." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie,  143 

"I  don't  know  you  thoroughly,"  said  la  Peyracle,  "but 
I  do  know  thing's  about  you  which  now  make  me  regret 
that  I  did  not  tell  you  the  whole  affair  from  its  origin;  I 
mean  from  the  moment  when  I  conceived  the  plan  to 
which  Thuillier  will  owe  his  nomination.  He  will  be 
hunted  down  by  envy  and  jealousy,  and  the  task  of 
upholding  him  will  be  a  hard  one;  we  must,  however, 
get  the  better  of  his  rivals  and  take  the  wind  out  of 
their  sails." 

"But  this  affair,"  said  Brigitte,  "what  are  the  diffi- 
culties?" 

"Mademoiselle,  the  difficulties  lie  within  my  own  con- 
science. Assuredly,  I  could  not  serve  you  in  this  matter 
without  first  consulting  my  confessor.  From  a  worldly 
point  of  view  —  oh !  the  affair  is  perfectly  legal,  and  I 
am  —  you  '11  understand  me?  —  a  barrister  inscribed  on 
the  panel,  that  is,  member  of  a  bar  controlled  by  the 
strictest  rules.  I  am  therefore  incapable  of  proposing 
an  enterprise  which  might  give  occasion  for  blame.  In 
the  first  place,  I  myself  don't  make  a  penny  by  it." 

Brigitte  was  on  thorns;  her  face  was  flaming;  she 
broke  her  wool,  mended  it,  broke  it  again,  and  did  not 
know  which  way  to  look. 

"One  can't  get,"  she  said,  "in  these  days,  forty  thou- 
sand francs  a  year  from  landed  property  unless  it  is 
worth  one  million  eight  hundred  thousand." 

"Well,  I  will  undertake  that  you  shall  see  a  piece  of 
property  and  estimate  yourself  its  probable  revenue, 
which  I  can  make  Thuillier  the  owner  of  for  fifty  thou- 
sand francs  down." 

"Oh!  if  you  can  make  us  obtain  that!  "  cried  Brigitte, 
worked  up  to  the  highest  excitement  by  the  spur  of  her 
natural  cupidity.  "Go  on,  my  dear  Monsieur  Theodose, 
and  —  " 

She  stopped  short. 

"Well,  mademoiselle?" 


144  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"You  will,  perhaps,  have  done  yourself  a  service. " 

"Ah!  if  Thuillier  has  told  you  my  secret,  I  must  leave 
this  house." 

Brigitte  looked  up. 

"Did  he  tell  you  that  I  love  Celeste?  " 

"No,  on  my  word  of  honor!"  cried  Brigitte,  "but  I 
myself  was  just  about  to  speak  of  her." 

"And  offer  her  to  me?  Oh!  may  God  forgive  us!  I 
can  only  win  her  of  herself,  her  parents,  by  a  free  choice 

—  No,  no,  all  I  ask  of  you  is  your  good-will,  your  pro- 
tection. Promise  me,  as  Thuillier  has,  in  return  for  my 
services  your  influence,  your  friendship;  tell  me  that 
you  will  treat  me  as  a  son.  If  you  will  do  that,  I  will 
abide  by  your  decision  in  this  matter;  I  can  trust  it;  I 
need  not  speak  to  my  confessor.  For  the  last  two  years, 
ever  since  I  have  seen  much  of  this  family,  to  whom  I 
would  fain  give  my  powers  and  devote  my  utmost  energy 

—  for,  I  shall  succeed !  surely  I  shall !  —  I  have  observed 
that  your  integrity,  your  honor  is  that  of  the  olden  time, 
your  judgment  righteous  and  inflexible.  Also,  you  have 
a  knowledge  of  business ;  and  these  qualities  combined 
are  precious  helps  to  a  man.  With  a  mother-in-law,  as 
I  may  say,  of  your  powers,  I  should  find  my  home  life 
relieved  of  a  crowd  of  cares  and  details  as  to  property, 
which  hinder  a  man's  advance  in  a  political  career  if  he 
is  forced  to  attend  to  them.  I  admired  you  deeply  on 
Sunday  evening.  Ah!  you  were  fine!  How  you  did 
manage  matters!  In  ten  minutes  that  dining-room  was 
cleared !  And,  without  going  outside  of  your  own  apart- 
ment, you  had  everything  at  hand  for  the  refreshments, 
for  the  supper !  '  There, '  I  said  to  myself,  as  I  watched 
you,  '  is  a  true  maitresse-femme  —  a  masterly  woman!'  " 

Brigitte's  nostrils  dilated;  she  breathed  in  the  words 
of  the  young  lawyer.  He  gave  her  a  side-long  glance  to 
enjoy  his  triumph;  he  had  touched  the  right  chord  in 
her    breast. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  145 

At  this  moment  he  was  standing,  but  he  now  resumed 
his  seat  beside  her,  and  said:  — 

"Now  here  is  our  affair,  dear  aunt  —  for  you  will  be 
a  sort  of  aunt  —  " 

"Hush!  you  naughty  fellow!  "  said  Brigitte,  "and  go 
on." 

"I'll  tell  you  the  matter  roughly  —  and  remark,  if 
you  please,  that  I  compromise  myself  in  telling  it  to 
you;  for  these  secrets  are  intrusted  to  me  as  a  lawyer. 
Therefore  understand  that  you  and  I  are  both  committing 
a  crime,  so  to  speak,  of  leze-confidence!  A  notary  of 
Paris  was  in  partnership  with  an  architect;  they  bought 
land  and  built  upon  it;  at  the  present  moment,  property 
has  come  down  with  a  rush ;  they  find  themselves  embar- 
rassed —  but  all  that  does  n't  concern  us.  Among  the 
houses  built  by  this  illegal  partnership  —  for  notaries, 
you  know,  are  sworn  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  enter- 
prises —  is  a  very  good  one  which,  not  being  finished, 
must  be  sold  at  a  great  sacrifice;  so  great  that  they  now 
ask  only  one  hundred  thousand  francs  for  it,  although 
the  cost  of  the  land  and  the  building  was  at  least  four 
hundred  thousand.  As  the  whole  interior  is  still  unfin- 
ished, the  value  of  what  is  still  to  do  is  easily  appraised ; 
it  will  probably  not  be  more  than  fifty  thousand  francs. 
Now,  owing  to  its  excellent  position,  this  house,  when 
finished,  will  certainly  bring  in  a  rental,  over  and  above 
the  taxes,  of  forty  thousand  francs  a  year.  It  is  built 
of  freestone,  the  corners  and  copings  of  cut  granite;  the 
fagade  is  covered  with  handsome  carvings,  on  which 
they  spent  more  than  twenty  thousand  francs;  the  win- 
dows are  plate  glass  with  a  new  style  of  fastening  called 
cremona." 

"Well,  where  is  the  difficulty?" 

"Just  here:  the  notary  wants  to  reserve  to  himself  this 
bit  of  the  cake  he  is  forced  to  surrender;  he  is,  under 
the  name  of  a  friend,  the  creditor  who  requests  the  sale 

10 


146  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

of  the  property  by  the  assignee  of  the  bankruptcy.  The 
case  has  not  been  brought  into  court;  for  legal  proceed- 
ings cost  so  much  money.  The  sale  is  to  be  made  by 
voluntary  agreement.  Now,  this  notary  has  applied  to 
one  of  my  clients  to  lend  him  his  name  for  this  pur- 
chase. My  client,  a  poor  devil,  says  to  me:  'There's  a 
fortune  to  be  made  out  of  that  house  by  fooling  the 
notary. ' " 

"And  they  do  that  sort  of  thing  in  business!"  said 
Brigitte,  quickly. 

"If  that  were  the  only  difficulty,"  continued  Theodose, 
"it  would  be,  as  a  friend  of  mine  said  to  his  pupil,  who 
was  complaining  of  the  length  of  time  it  took  to  produce 
masterpieces  in  painting:  'My  dear  young  fellow,  if  it 
were  not  so,  our  valets  would  be  painting  pictures.' 
But,  mademoiselle,  if  we  now  get  the  better  of  this  notary, 
who  certainly  deserves  it,  for  he  has  compromised  a 
number  of  private  fortunes,  yet,  as  he  is  a  very  shrewd 
man  (though  a  notary),  it  might  perhaps  be  very  difficult 
to  do  it  a  second  time,  and  here's  the  rub:  When  a 
piece  of  landed  property  is  bought  at  a  forced  sale,  if 
those  who  have  lent  money  on  that  property  see  that  it 
is  likely  to  be  sold  so  low  as  not  to  cover  the  sum  loaned 
upon  it,  they  have  the  right,  until  the  expiration  of  a 
certain  time,  to  bid  it  in ;  that  is,  to  offer  more  and  keep 
the  property  in  their  own  hands.  If  this  trickster  can't 
be  hoodwinked  as  to  the  sale  being  a  bona  fide  one  until 
the  time  when  his  right  to  buy  it  in  expires,  some  other 
scheme  must  be  resorted  to.  Now,  is  this  business 
strictly  legal?  Am  I  justified  in  doing  it  for  the  benefit 
of  a  family  I  seek  to  enter?  That  is  the  question  I  have 
been  revolving  in  my  mind  for  the  last  three  days." 

Brigitte,  we  must  acknowledge,  hesitated,  and  Theodose 
then  brought  forward  his  last  card :  — 

"Take  the  night  to  think  of  it,"  he  said,  "to-morrow 
we  will  talk  it  over." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  147 

"My  young  friend,"  said  Brigitte,  looking  at  the 
lawyer  with  an  almost  loving  air,  "the  first  thing  to  be 
done  is  to  see  the  house.     Where  is  it? " 

"Near  the  Madeleine.  That  will  be  the  heart  of  Paris 
in  ten  years.  All  that  property  has  been  desirable  since 
1819;  the  banker  Du  Tillet's  fortune  was  derived  from 
property  about  there.  The  famous  failure  of  Maitre 
Roquin,  which  carried  terror  to  all  Paris,  and  did  such 
harm  to  the  confidence  given  to  the  notariat,  was  also 
caused  by  it;  they  went  into  heavy  speculations  on  that 
land  too  soon;  they  should  have  waited  until  now." 

"I  remember  about  that,"  said  Brigitte. 

"The  house  might  be  finished  by  the  end  of  the  year," 
continued  Theodose,  "and  the  rentals  could  begin  next 
spring." 

"Could  we  go  there  to-morrow?" 

"Dear  aunt,  I  am  at  your  orders." 

"Ah  ga  !  "  she  cried,  "don't  call  me  that  before  people. 
As  to  this  affair,"  she  continued,  "I  can't  have  any 
opinion  until  I  have  seen  the  house." 

"It  has  six  storeys;  nine  windows  on  the  front;  a  fine 
courtyard,  four  shops,  and  it  stands  on  a  corner.  Ah! 
that  notary  knows  what  he  is  about  in  wishing  to  hold 
on  to  such  a  piece  of  property!  But  let  political  events 
interfere,  and  down  go  the  Funds!  If  I  were  you,  I 
should  sell  out  all  that  you  and  Madame  Thuillier  have 
on  the  Grand  Livre  and  buy  this  fine  piece  of  real  estate 
for  Thuillier,  and  I  'd  recover  the  fortune  of  that  poor, 
pious  creature  by  savings  from  its  proceeds.  Can  the 
Funds  go  higher  than  they  are  to-day  ?  One  hundred  and 
twenty- two!  it  is  fabulous;  I  should  make  haste  to  sell." 

Brigitte  licked  her  lips;  she  perceived  the  means  of 
keeping  her  own  property  intact,  and  of  enriching  her 
brother  by  this  use  of  Madame  Thuillier' s  fortune. 

"My  brother  is  right,"  she  said  to  Theodose;  "you 
certainly  are  a  rare  man;  you  '11  get  on  in  the  world." 


148  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"And  he  '11  walk  before  me,"  responded  Thdodose  with 
a  naivete  that  touched  the  old  maid. 

"You  will  live  in  the  family,"  she  said. 

"There  may  be  obstacles  to  that,"  he  remarked. 
"Madame  Thuillier  is  very  queer  at  times;  she  doesn't 
like  me." 

"Ha!  I'll  settle  that,"  cried  Brigitte.  "Do  you 
attend  to  that  affair  and  carry  it  through  if  it  is  feasible, 
and  leave  your  interests  in  my  hands." 

"Thuillier,  member  of  the  municipal  council,  owner  of 
an  estate  with  a  rental  of  forty  thousand  francs  a  year, 
with  the  cross  of  the  Legion  of  honor  and  the  author  of 
a  political  work,  grave,  serious,  important,  will  be  deputy 
at  the  forthcoming  general  election.  But,  between  our- 
selves, little  aunt,  one  could  n't  devote  one's  self  so 
utterly  except  for  a  father-in-law." 

"You  are  right." 

"Though  I  have  no  fortune  I  shall  have  doubled  yours; 
and  if  this  affair  goes  through  discreetly,  others  will 
turn  up." 

"Until  I  have  seen  the  house,"  said  Mademoiselle 
Thuillier  again,  "I  can  decide  on  nothing." 

"Well  then,  send  for  a  carriage  to-morrow  and  let  us 
go  there.  I  will  get  a  ticket  early  in  the  morning  to 
view  the  premises." 

"To-morrow,  then,  about  mid-day,"  responded  Brigitte, 
holding  out  her  hand  to  Theodose  that  he  might  shake 
it,  but  instead  of  that  he  laid  upon  it  the  most  respectful 
and  the  most  tender  kiss  that  Brigitte  had  ever  in  her 
life  received. 

"Adieu,  my  child,"  she  said,  as  he  reached  the  door. 

She  rang  the  bell  hurriedly  and  when  the  servant 
came:  — 

"Josephine,"  she  cried,  "go  at  once  to  Madame  Colle- 
ville,  and  ask  her  to  come  over  and  speak  to  me." 

Fifteen  minutes  later  Flavie  entered  the  salon,  where 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  149 

Brigitte  was  walking  up  and  down,  in  a  state  of  extreme 
agitation. 

"My  dear,"  she  cried  on  seeing  Flavie,  "you  can  do 
me  a  great  service,  which  concerns  our  dear  Celeste. 
You  know  Tullia,  don't  you?  —  a  danseuse  at  the  opera; 
my  brother  was  always  dinning  her  into  my  ears  at  one 
time." 

"Yes,  I  know  her;  but  she  is  no  longer  a  danseuse  ; 
she  is  Madame  la  Comtesse  du  Bruel.  Her  husband  is 
peer  of  France !  " 

"Does  she  still  like  you?" 

"We  never  see  each  other  now." 

"Well,  I  know  that  Chaff aroux,  the  rich  contractor,  is 
her  uncle,"  said  Brigitte.  "He  is  old  and  wealthy. 
Go  and  see  your  former  friend,  and  get  her  to  give  you 
a  line  of  introduction  to  him,  saying  he  would  do  her 
an  eminent  favor  if  he  would  give  a  piece  of  friendly 
advice  to  the  bearer  of  the  note,  and  then  you  and  I  will 
take  it  to  him  to-morrow  about  one  o'clock.  But  tell 
Tullia  she  must  request  her  uncle  to  keep  secret  about  it. 
Go,  my  dear.  Celeste,  our  dear  child,  will  be  a  mil- 
lionaire! I  can't  say  more;  but  she  '11  have,  from  me,  a 
husband  who  will  put  her  on  a  pinnacle." 

"Do  you  want  me  to  tell  you  the  first  letters  of  his 
name?" 

"Yes." 

"T.  P., — Theodose  de  la  Peyrade.  You  are  right. 
That's  a  man  who  may,  if  supported  by  a  woman  like 
you,   become  a  minister." 

"It  is  God  himself  who  has  placed  him  in  our  house!  " 
cried  the  old  maid. 

At  this  moment  Monsieur  and  Madame  Thuillier 
returned   home. 

Five  days  later,  in  the  month  of  April,  the  ordinance 
which  convoked  the  electors  to  appoint  a  member  of  the 
municipal  council  on  the  20th  of   the  same  month  was 


150  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

inserted  in  the  "Moniteur,"  and  placarded  about  Paris. 
For  several  weeks  the  ministry,  called  that  of  March 
1st,  had  been  in  power.  Brigitte  was  in  a  charming 
humor.  She  had  been  convinced  of  the  truth  of  all  la 
Peyrade's  assertions.  The  house,  visited  from  garret 
to  cellar  by  old  Chaff  aroux,  was  admitted  by  him  to  be 
an  admirable  construction;  poor  Grindot,  the  architect, 
who  was  interested  with  the  notary  and  Claparon  in  the 
affair,  thought  the  old  man  was  employed  in  the  interests 
of  the  contractor;  the  old  fellow  himself  thought  he  was 
acting  in  the  interests  of  his  niece,  and  he  gave  it  as  his 
opinion  that  thirty  thousand  francs  would  finish  the 
house.  Thus,  in  the  course  of  one  week  la  Peyrade 
became  Brigitte's  god;  and  she  proved  to  him  by  the 
most  naively  nefarious  arguments  that  fortune  should  be 
seized  when  it  offered  itself. 

"Well,  if  there  is  any  sin  in  the  business,"  she  said  to 
him  in  the  middle  of  the  garden,  "you  can  confess  it." 

"The  devil!"  cried  Thuillier,  "a  man  owes  himself 
to  his  relatives,  and  you  are  one  of  us  now." 

"Then  I  decide  to  do  it,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  in  a 
voice  of  emotion;  "but  on  conditions  that  I  must  now 
distinctly  state.  I  will  not,  in  marrying  Celeste,  be 
accused  of  greed  and  mercenary  motives.  If  you  lay 
remorse  upon  me,  at  least  you  must  consent  that  I  shall 
remain  as  I  am  for  the  present.  Do  not  settle  upon 
Celeste,  my  old  Thuillier,  the  future  possession  of  the 
property  I  am  about  to  obtain  for  you  — " 

"You  are  right." 

"Don't  rob  yourself;  and  let  my  dear  little  aunt  here 
act  in  the  same  way  in  relation  to  the  marriage  contract. 
Put  the  remainder  of  the  capital  in  Madame  Thuillier's 
name,  on  the  Grand  Livre,  and  she  can  do  what  she  likes 
with  it.  We  shall  all  live  together  as  one  family,  and 
I  '11  undertake  to  make  my  own  fortune,  now  that  I  am 
free  from  anxiety  about  the  future." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  151 

"That  suits  me,"  said  Thuillier;  "that's  the  talk  of 
an  honest  man." 

"Let  me  kiss  you  on  the  forehead,  my  son,"  said  the 
old  maid;  "but,  inasmuch  as  Celeste  cannot  be  allowed 
to  go  without  a  dot,  we  shall  give  her  sixty  thousand 
francs." 

"For  her  dress,"  said  la  Peyrade. 

"We  are  all  three  persons  of  honor,"  cried  Thuillier. 
"It  is  now  settled,  is  n't  it?  You  are  to  manage  the  pur- 
chase of  the  house;  we  are  to  write  together,  you  and  I, 
my  political  work;  and  you  '11  bestir  yourself  to  get  me 
the  decoration  ?  " 

"You  will  have  that  as  soon  as  you  are  made  a  muni- 
cipal councillor  on  the  1st  of  May.  Only,  my  good 
friend,  I  must  beg  you,  and  you,  too,  dear  aunt,  to  keep 
the  most  profound  secrecy  about  me  in  this  affair;  and 
do  not  listen  to  the  calumnies  which  all  the  men  I  am 
about  to  trick  will  spread  about  me.  I  shall  become, 
you  '11  see,  a  vagabond,  a  swindler,  a  dangerous  man,  a 
Jesuit,  an  ambitious  fortune-hunter.  Can  you  hear  those 
accusations  against  me  with  composure?" 

"Fear  nothing,"  replied  Brigitte. 


152  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


XL 

THE   REIGN   OF   THEODOSE. 

From  that  day  forth  Thuillier  became  a  dear,  good 
friend.  "My  dear,  good  friend,"  was  the  name  given 
to  him  by  Theodose,  with  voice  inflections  of  varieties 
of  tenderness  which  astonished  Flavie.  But  "little 
aunt,"  a  name  that  flattered  Brigitte  deeply,  was  only 
given  in  family  secrecy,  and  occasionally  before  Flavie. 
The  activity  of  Theodose  and  Dutocq,  Cerizet,  Barbet, 
Metivier,  Minard,  Phellion,  Colleville,  and  others  of  the 
Thuillier  circle  was  extreme.  Great  and  small,  they  all 
put  their  hands  to  the  work.  Cadenet  procured  thirty 
votes  in  his  section.  On  the  30th  of  April  Thuillier 
was  proclaimed  member  of  the  Council-general  of  the 
department  of  the  Seine  by  an  imposing  majority;  in 
fact,  he  only  needed  sixty  more  votes  to  make  his  elec- 
tion unanimous.  May  1st  Thuillier  joined  the  municipal 
body  and  went  to  the  Tuileries  to  congratulate  the  King 
on  his  fete-day,  and  returned  home  radiant.  He  had 
gone  where  Minard  went! 

Ten  days  later  a  yellow  poster  announced  the  sale  of 
the  house,  after  due  publication ;  the  price  named  being 
seventy-five  thousand  francs ;  the  final  purchase  to  take 
place  about  the  last  of  July.  On  this  point  Cerizet  and 
Claparon  had  an  agreement  by  which  Cerizet  pledged 
the  sum  of  fifteen  thousand  francs  (in  words  only,  be  it 
understood)  to  Claparon  in  case  the  latter  could  deceive 
the  notary  and  keep  him  quiet  until  the  time  expired 
during  which  he  might  withdraw  the  property  by  bidding 
it   in.     Mademoiselle   Thuillier,  notified   by   Theodose, 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  153 

agreed  entirely  to  this  secret  clause,  understanding  per- 
fectly the  necessity  of  paying  the  culprits  guilty  of  the 
treachery.  The  money  was  to  pass  through  la  Peyrade's 
hands.  Claparon  met  his  accomplice,  the  notary,  on  the 
Place  de  l'Observatoire  by  midnight.  This  young  man, 
the  successor  of  Leopold  Hannequin,  was  one  of  those 
who  run  after  fortune  instead  of  following  it  leisurely. 
He  now  saw  another  future  before  him,  and  he  managed 
his  present  affairs  in  order  to  be  free  to  take  hold  of  it. 
In  this  midnight  interview,  he  offered  Claparon  ten  thou- 
sand francs  to  secure  himself  in  this  dirty  business,  — 
a  sum  which  was  only  to  be  paid  on  receipt,  through 
Claparon,  of  a  counter-deed  from  the  nominal  purchaser 
of  the  property.  The  notary  was  aware  that  that  sum 
was  all-important  to  Claparon  to  extricate  him  from 
present  difficulties,  and  he  felt  secure  of  him. 

"Who  but  you,  in  all  Paris,  would  give  me  such  a  fee 
for  such  an  affair?  "  Claparon  said  to  him,  with  a  false 
show  of  naivete.  "You  can  sleep  in  peace;  my  osten- 
sible purchaser  is  one  of  those  men  of  honor  who  are  too 
stupid  to  have  ideas  of  your  kind ;  he  is  a  retired  gov- 
ernment employe;  give  him  the  money  to  make  the  pur- 
chase and  he  '11  sign  the  counter-deed  at  once." 

When  the  notary  had  made  Claparon  clearly  understand 
that  he  could  not  get  more  than  the  ten  thousand  francs 
from  him,  Cerizet  offered  the  latter  twelve  thousand 
down,  and  asked  Theodose  for  fifteen  thousand,  intending 
to  keep  the  balance  for  himself.  All  these  scenes  be- 
tween the  four  men  were  seasoned  with  the  finest  speeches 
about  feelings,  integrity,  and  the  honor  that  men  owed  to 
one  another  in  doing  business.  While  these  submarine 
performances  were  going  on,  apparently  in  the  interests 
of  Thuillier,  to  whom  Theodose  related  them  with  the 
deepest  manifestations  of  disgust  at  being  implicated 
therein,  the  pair  were  meditating  the  great  political  work 
which  "my  dear  good  friend  "  was  to  publish.     Thus  the 


154  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

new  municipal  councillor  naturally  acquired  a  conviction 
that  he  could  never  do  or  be  anything  without  the  help 
of  this  man  of  genius;  whose  mind  so  amazed  him,  and 
whose  ability  was  now  so  important  to  him,  that  every 
day  he  became  more  and  more  convinced  of  the  necessity 
of  marrying  him  to  Celeste,  and  of  taking  the  young 
couple  to  live  with  him.  In  fact,  after  May  the  1st, 
Theodose  already  dined  four  times  a  week  with  "my  dear, 
good  friend." 

This  was  the  period  when  Theodose  reigned  without 
a  dissenting  voice  in  the  bosom  of  that  household,  and 
all  the  friends  of  the  family  approved  of  him  —  for  the 
following  reason:  The  Phellions,  hearing  his  praises 
sung  by  Brigitte  and  Thuillier,  feared  to  displease  the 
two  powers  and  chorussed  their  words,  even  when  such 
perpetual  laudation  seemed  to  them  exaggerated.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  the  Minards.  Moreover  la 
Peyrade's  behavior,  as  "friend  of  the  family"  was  per- 
fect. He  disarmed  distrust  by  the  manner  in  which  he 
effaced  himself;  he  was  there  like  a  new  piece  of  furni- 
ture; and  he  contrived  to  make  both  the  Phellions  and 
Minards  believe  that  Brigitte  and  Thuillier  had  weighed 
him,  and  found  him  too  light  in  the  scales  to  be  any- 
thing more  in  the  family  than  a  young  man  whose  ser- 
vices were  useful  to  them. 

"He  may  think,"  said  Thuillier  one  day  to  Minard, 
"that  my  sister  will  put  him  in  her  will;  he  doesn't 
know  her." 

This  speech,  inspired  by  Theodose  himself,  calmed  the 
uneasiness  of  Minard  pere. 

"He  is  devoted  to  us,"  said  Brigitte  to  Madame 
Phellion;  "but  he  certainly  owes  us  a  great  deal  of 
gratitude.  We  have  given  him  his  lodging  rent-free, 
and  he  dines  with  us  almost  every  day." 

This  speech  of  the  old  maid,  also  instigated  by  Theo- 
dose,  went  from  ear   to   ear   among   the  families  who 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  155 

frequented  the  Thuillier  salon,  and  dissipated  all  fears. 
The  young  man  called  attention  to  the  remarks  of 
Thuillier  and  his  sister  with  the  servility  of  a  parasite; 
when  he  played  whist  he  justified  the  blunders  of  his 
dear,  good  friend,  and  he  kept  upon  his  countenance  a 
smile,  fixed  and  benign,  like  that  of  Madame  Thuillier, 
ready  to  bestow  upon  all  the  bourgeois  sillinesses  of  the 
brother  and  sister. 

He  obtained,  what  he  wanted  above  all,  the  contempt 
of  his  true  antagonists ;  and  he  used  it  as  a  cloak  to  hide 
his  real  power.  For  four  consecutive  months  his  face 
wore  a  torpid  expression,  like  that  of  a  snake  as  it  gulps 
and  digests  its  prey.  But  at  times  he  would  rush  into 
the  garden  with  Colleville  or  Flavie,  to  laugh  and  lay 
off  his  mask,  and  rest  himself;  or  get  fresh  strength  by 
giving  way  before  his  future  mother-in-law  to  fits  of 
nervous  passion  which  either  terrified  or  deeply  touched 
her. 

"Don't  you  pity  me?"  he  cried  to  her  the  evening 
before  the  preparatory  sale  of  the  house,  when  Thuillier 
was  to  make  the  purchase  at  seventy-five  thousand  francs. 
"Think  of  a  man  like  me,  forced  to  creep  like  a  cat,  to 
choke  down  every  pointed  word,  to  swallow  my  own  gall, 
and  submit  to  your  rebuffs !  " 

"My  friend!  my  child!"  Flavie  replied,  undecided 
in  mind  how  to  take  him. 

These  words  are  a  thermometer  which  will  show  the 
temperature  at  which  this  clever  manipulator  maintained 
his  intrigue  with  Flavie.  He  kept  her  floating  between 
her  heart  and  her  moral  sense,  between  religious  senti- 
ments and  this  mysterious  passion. 

During  this  time  Felix  Phellion  was  giving,  with  a 
devotion  and  constancy  worthy  of  all  praise,  regular 
lessons  to  young  Colleville.  He  spent  much  of  his  time 
upon  these  lessons,  feeling  that  he  was  thus  working  for 
his  future  family.     To  acknowledge  this  service,  he  was 


156  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

invited,  by  advice  of  Th^odose  to  Flavie,  to  dine  at  the 
Collevilles'  every  Thursday,  where  la  Peyrade  always 
met  him.  Flavie  was  usually  making  either  a  purse  or 
slippers  or  a  cigar-case  for  the  happy  young  man,  who 
would  say,  deprecatingly:  — 

44 1  am  only  too  well  rewarded,  madame,  by  the  happi- 
ness I  feel  in  being  useful  to  you." 

44 We  are  not  rich,  monsieur,"  replied  Colleville,  44but, 
God  bless  me!  we  are  not  ungrateful." 

Old  Phellion  would  rub  his  hands  as  he  listened  to  his 
son's  account  of  these  evenings,  beholding  his  dear  and 
noble  Felix  already  wedded  to  Celeste. 

But  Celeste,  the  more  she  loved  Felix,  the  more  grave 
and  serious  she  became  with  him;  partly  because  her 
mother  sharply  lectured  her,  saying  to  her  one  evening :  — 

"Don't  give  any  hope  whatever  to  that  young  Phellion. 
Neither  your  father  nor  I  can  arrange  your  marriage. 
You  have  expectations  to  be  consulted.  It  is  much  less 
important  to  please  a  professor  without  a  penny  than  to 
make  sure  of  the  affection  and  good-will  of  Mademoiselle 
Brigitte  and  your  godfather.  If  you  don't  want  to  kill 
your  mother  —  yes,  my  dear,  kill  her  —  you  must  obey 
me  in  this  affair  blindly;  and  remember  that  what  we 
want  to  secure,  above  all,  is  your  good." 

As  the  date  of  the  final  sale  was  set  for  the  last  of 
July,  Theodose  advised  Brigitte  by  the  end  of  June  to 
arrange  her  affairs  in  time  to  be  ready  for  the  payment. 
Accordingly,  she  now  sold  out  her  own  and  her  sister- 
in-law's  property  in  the  Funds.  The  catastrophe  of  the 
treaty  of  the  four  powers,  an  insult  to  France,  is  now  an 
established  historical  fact;  but  it  is  necessary  to  remind 
the  reader  that  from  July  to  the  last  of  August  the 
French  funds,  alarmed  by  the  prospect  of  war,  a  fear 
which  Monsieur  Thiers  did  rather  too  much  to  promote, 
fell  twenty  francs,  and  the  Three-per-cents  went  down  to 
sixty.     That  was  not  all :  this  financial  fiasco  had  a  most 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  157 

unfortunate  influence  on  the  value  of  real  estate  in  Paris ; 
and  all  those  who  had  such  property  then  for  sale  suffered 
loss.  These  events  made  Theodose  a  prophet  in  the  eyes 
of  Brigitte  and  Thuillier^  to  whom  the  house  was  now 
about  to  be  definitely  sold  for  seventy-five  thousand 
francs.  The  notary,  involved  in  the  political  disaster, 
and  whose  practice  was  already  sold,  concealed  himself 
for  a  time  in  the  country ;  but  he  took  with  him  the  ten 
thousand  francs  for  Claparon.  Advised  by  Theodose, 
Thuillier  made  a  contract  with  Grindot,  who  supposed  he 
was  really  working  for  the  notary  in  finishing  the  house; 
and  as,  during  this  period  of  financial  depression,  sus- 
pended work  left  many  workmen  with  their  arms  folded, 
the  architect  was  able  to  finish  off  the  building  in  a 
splendid  manner  at  a  low  cost.  Theodose  insisted  that 
the  agreement  should  be  in  writing. 

This  purchase  increased  Thuillier's  importance  ten- 
fold. As  for  the  notary,  he  had  temporarily  lost  his 
head  in  presence  of  political  events  which  came  upon 
him  like  a  waterspout  out  of  cloudless  skies.  Theodose, 
certain  now  of  his  supremacy,  holding  Thuillier  fast  by 
his  past  services  and  by  the  literary  work  in  which  they 
were  both  engaged,  admired  by  Brigitte  for  his  modesty 
and  discretion,  —  for  never  had  he  made  the  slightest 
allusion  to  his  own  poverty  or  uttered  one  word  about 
money,  —  Theodose  began  to  assume  an  air  that  was 
rather  less  servile  than  it  had  been.  Brigitte  and 
Thuillier  said  to  him  one  day :  — 

"Nothing  can  deprive  you  of  our  esteem;  you  are  here 
in  this  house  as  if  in  your  own  home;  the  opinion  of 
Miiiard  and  Phellion,  which  you  seem  to  fear,  has  no 
more  value  for  us  than  a  stanza  of  Victor  Hugo.  There- 
fore, let  them  talk!     Carry  your  head  high!  " 

"But  we  shall  still  need  them  for  Thuillier's  election 
to  the  Chamber,"  said  Theodose.  "Follow  my  advice; 
you  have  found  it  good  so  far,  have  n't  you?     When  the 


158  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

house  is  actually  yours,  you  will  have  got  it  for  almost 
nothing;  for  you  can  now  buy  into  the  Three-per-cents 
at  sixty  in  Madame  Thuillier's  name,  and  thus  replace 
nearly  the  whole  of  her  fortune.  Wait  only  for  the 
expiration  of  the  time  allowed  to  the  nominal  creditor  to 
buy  it  in,  and  have  the  fifteen  thousand  francs  ready  for 
our  scoundrels." 

Brigitte  did  not  wait ;  she  took  her  whole  capital  with 
the  exception  of  a  sum  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thou- 
sand francs,  and  bought  into  the  Three  per-cents  in 
Madame  Thuillier's  name  to  the  amount  of  twelve  thou- 
sand francs  a  year,  and  in  her  own  for  ten  thousand  a 
year,  resolving  in  her  own  mind  to  choose  no  other  kind 
of  investment  in  future.  She  saw  her  brother  secure  of 
forty  thousand  francs  a  year  besides  his  pension,  twelve 
thousand  a  year  for  Madame  Thuillier  and  eighteen  thou- 
sand a  year  for  herself,  besides  the  house  they  lived  in, 
the  rental  of  which  she  valued  at  eight  thousand. 

"We  are  worth  quite  as  much  as  the  Minards,"  she 
remarked. 

"Don't  chant  victory  before  you  win  it,"  said  Theo- 
dose.  "The  right  of  redemption  does  n't  expire  for 
another  week.  I  have  attended  to  your  affairs,  but  mine 
have  gone  terribly  to  pieces." 

"My  dear  child,  you  have  friends,"  cried  Brigitte;  "if 
you  should  happen  to  want  five  hundred  francs  or  so, 
you  will  always  find  them  here." 

Theodose  exchanged  a  smile  with  Thuillier,  who 
hastened  to  carry  him  off,  saying:  — 

"Excuse  my  poor  sister;  she  sees  the  world  through  a 
small  hole.  But  if  you  should  want  twenty-five  thousand 
francs  I  '11  lend  them  to  you  —  out  of  my  first  rents,"  he 
added. 

"Thuillier,"  exclaimed  Theodose,  "the  rope  is  round 
my  neck.  Ever  since  I  have  been  a  barrister  I  have  had 
notes  of  hand  running.      But   say    nothing    about   it," 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  159 

added  Theodose,  frightened  himself  at  having  let  out  the 
secret  of  his  situation.  "I'm  in  the  claws  of  scoundrels, 
but  I  hope  to  crush  them  yet." 

In  telling  this  secret  Theodose,  though  alarmed  as  he 
did  so,  had  a  two-fold  purpose:  first,  to  test  Thuillier; 
and  next,  to  avert  the  consequences  of  a  fatal  blow  which 
might  be  dealt  to  him  any  day  in  a  secret  and  sinister 
struggle  he  had  long  foreseen.  Two  words  will  explain 
his  horrible  position. 


160  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


XII. 

DEVILS    AGAINST    DEVILS. 

During  the  extreme  poverty  of  la  Peyrade's  first  years 
in  Paris,  none  but  C6rizet  had  ever  gone  to  see  him 
in  the  wretched  garret  where,  in  severely  cold  weather, 
be  stayed  in  bed  for  want  of  clothes.  Only  one  shirt 
remained  to  him.  For  three  days  he  lived  on  one  loaf 
of  bread,  cutting  it  into  measured  morsels,  and  asking 
himself,  "What  ami  to  do?"  At  this  moment  it  was 
that  his  former  partner  came  to  him,  having  just  left 
prison,  pardoned.  The  projects  which  the  two  men 
then  formed  before  a  fire  of  laths,  one  wrapped  in  his 
landlady's  counterpane,  the  other  in  his  infamy,  it  is 
useless  to  relate.  The  next  day  Cerizet,  who  had  talked 
with  Dutocq  in  the  course  of  the  morning,  returned,  bring- 
ing trousers,  waistcoat,  coat,  hat,  and  boots,  bought  in 
the  Temple,  and  he  carried  off  Theodose  to  dine  with 
himself  and  Dutocq.  The  hungry  Provencal  ate  at 
Pinson's,  rue  de  l'Ancienne  Comedie,  half  of  a  dinner 
costing  forty-seven  francs.  At  dessert,  after  Theodose 
had  drunk  freely,  Cerizet  said  to  him :  — 

"Will  you  sign  me  bills  of  exchange  for  fifty  thousand 
francs  in  your  capacity  as  barrister?" 

"You  couldn't  get  five  thousand  on  them." 

"That 's  not  your  affair,  but  ours;  I  mean  monsieur's 
here,  who  is  giving  us  this  dinner,  and  mine,  in  a  matter 
where  you  risk  nothing,  but  in  which  you  '11  get  your 
title  as  barrister,  a  fine  practice,  and  the  hand  in  mar- 
riage of  a  girl  about  the  age  of  an  old  dog,  and  rich  by 
twenty  or  thirty  thousand  francs  a  year.     Neither  Dutocq 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie,  1G1 

nor  I  can  marry  her;  but  we'll  equip  you,  give  you  the 
look  of  a  decent  man,  feed  and  lodge  you,  and  set  you 
up  generally.  Consequently,  we  want  security.  I  don't 
say  that  on  my  own  account,  for  I  know  you,  but  for 
monsieur  here,  whose  proxy  I  am.  We  '11  equip  you  as 
a  pirate,  hey!  to  do  the  white-slave  trade!  If  we  can't 
capture  that  dot,  we  '11  try  other  plans.  Between  our- 
selves, none  of  us  need  be  particular  what  we  touch  — 
that 's  plain  enough.  We  '11  give  you  careful  instruc- 
tions; for  the  matter  is  certain  to  take  time,  and  there  '11 
probably  be  some  bother  about  it.  Here,  see,  I  have 
brought  stamped  paper." 

"Waiter,  pens  and  ink!  "  cried  Theodose. 

uHa  !  I  like  fellows  of  that  kind  !  "  exclaimed  Dutocq. 

"Sign:  'Theodose  de  la  Peyrade,'  and  after  your 
name  put  'Barrister,  rue  Saint-Dominique  d'Enfer,' 
under  the  words  '  Accepted  for  ten  thousand.'  We'll 
date  the  notes  and  sue  you,  — all  secretly,  of  course,  but 
in  order  to  have  a  hold  upon  you ;  the  owners  of  a  privateer 
ought  to  have  security  when  the  brig  and  the  captain  are 
at  sea." 

The  day  after  this  interview  the  bailiff  of  the  justice- 
of -peace  did  Cerizet  the  service  of  suing  la  Peyrade 
secretly.  He  went  to  see  the  barrister  that  evening,  and 
the  whole  affair  was  done  without  any  publicity.  The 
Court  of  commerce  has  a  hundred  such  cases  in  the  course 
of  one  term.  The  strict  regulations  of  the  council  of 
barristers  of  the  bar  of  Paris  are  well  known.  This 
body,  and  also  the  council  of  attorneys,  exercise  severe 
discipline  over  their  members.  A  barrister  liable  to  go 
to  Clichy  would  be  disbarred.  Consequently,  Cerizet, 
under  Dutocq' s  advice,  had  taken  against  their  puppet 
measures  which  were  certain  to  secure  to  each  of  them 
twenty-five  thousand  francs  out  of  Celeste's  dot.  In 
signing  the  notes,  Theodose  saw  but  one  thing,  —  his 
means  of  living  secured;  but  as  time  had  gone  on,  and 

ll 


102  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 

the  horizon  grew  clearer,  and  he  mounted,  step  by  step, 
to  a  better  position  on  the  social  ladder,  he  began  to 
dream  of  getting  rid  of  his  associates.  And  now,  on 
obtaining  twenty-five  thousand  francs  from  Thuillier,  he 
hoped  to  treat  on  the  basis  of  fifty  per  cent  for  the  return 
of  his  fatal  notes  by  Cerizet. 

Unhappily,  this  sort  of  infamous  speculation  is  not  an 
exceptional  fact;  it  takes  place  in  Paris  under  various 
forms  too  little  disguised  for  the  historian  of  manners 
and  morals  to  pass  them  over  unnoticed  in  a  complete 
and  accurate  picture  of  society  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
Dutocq,  an  arrant  scoundrel,  still  owed  fifteen  thousand 
francs  on  his  practice,  and  lived  in  hopes  of  something 
turning  up  to  keep  his  head,  as  the  saying  is,  above 
water  until  the  close  of  1840.  Up  to  the  present  time 
none  of  the  three  confederates  had  liinched  or  groaned. 
Each  felt  his  strength  and  knew  his  danger.  Equals 
they  were  in  distrust,  in  watchfulness;  equals,  too,  in 
apparent  confidence;  and  equally  stolid  in  silence  and 
look  when  mutual  suspicions  rose  to  the  surface  of  face 
or  speech.  For  the  last  two  months  the  position  of 
Theodose  was  acquiring  the  strength  of  a  detached  fort. 
But  Cerizet  and  Dutocq  held  it  undermined  by  a  mass  of 
powder,  with  the  match  ever  lighted;  but  the  wind  might 
extinguish  the  match  or  the  devil  might  flood  the  mine. 

The  moment  when  wild  beasts  seize  their  food  is  always 
the  most  critical,  and  that  moment  had  now  arrived  for 
these  three  hungry  tigers.  Cerizet  would  sometimes  say 
to  Theodose,  with  that  revolutionary  glance  which  twice 
in  this  century  sovereigns  have  had  to  meet:  — 

MI  have  made  you  king,  and  here  am  I  still  nothing! 
for  it  is  nothing  not  to  be  all." 

A  reaction  of  envy  was  rushing  its  avalanche  through 
Cerizet.  Dutocq  was  at  the  mercy  of  his  copying  clerk. 
Theodose  would  gladly  have  burned  his  copartners  could 
he  have  burned  their  papers  in  the  same  conflagration. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  163 

All  three  studied  each  other  too  carefully,  in  order  to 
conceal  their  own  thoughts,  not  to  be  in  turn  divined. 
Theodose  lived  a  life  of  three  hells  as  he  thought  of 
what  lay  below  the  cards,  then  of  his  own  game,  and 
then  of  his  future.  His  speech  to  Thuillier  was  a  cry  of 
despair;  he  threw  his  lead  into  the  waters  of  the  old 
bourgeois  and  found  there  nothing  more  than  twenty-five 
thousand  francs. 

"And,"  he  said  to  himself  as  he  went  to  his  own  room, 
"possibly  nothing  at  all  a  month  hence." 

He  now  felt  the  deepest  hatred  to  the  Thuilliers.  But 
Thuillier  himself  he  held  by  a  harpoon  stuck  into  the 
depths  of  the  man's  vanity;  namely,  by  the  projected 
work,  entitled  "Taxation  and  the  Sinking  Fund,"  for 
which  he  intended  to  rearrange  the  ideas  of  the  Saint- 
Simonian  "Globe,"  giving  them  a  systematic  form,  and 
coloring  them  with  his  fervid  Southern  diction.  Thuil- 
lier's  bureaucratic  knowledge  of  the  subject  would  be 
of  use  to  him  here.  Theodose  therefore  clung  to  this 
rope,  resolving  to  do  battle,  on  so  poor  a  base  of  opera- 
tions, with  the  vanity  of  a  fool,  which,  according  to 
individual  character,  is  either  granite  or  sand.  On 
reflection,  Theodose  was  inclined  to  be  content  with  the 
prospect. 

On  the  evening  before  the  right  of  redemption  expired, 
Claparon  and  Cerizet  proceeded  to  manipulate  the  notary 
in  the  following  manner.  Cerizet,  to  whom  Claparon 
had  revealed  the  password  and  the  notary's  retreat,  went 
out  to  this  hidiug-place  to  say  to  the  latter:  — 

"One  of  my  friends,  Claparon,  whom  you  know,  has 
asked  me  to  come  and  see  you;  he  will  expect  you  to- 
morrow, in  the  evening,  you  know  where.  He  has  the 
paper  you  expect  from  him,  which  he  will  exchange  with 
you  for  the  ten  .thousand  agreed  upon;  but  I  must  be 
present,  for  five  thousand  of  that  sum  belong  to  me; 
and  I  warn  you,  my  dear  monsieur,  that  the  name  in  the 
counter-deed  is  in  blank." 


1G4  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"I  shall  be  there,"  replied  the  ex-notary. 

The  poor  devil  waited  the  whole  night  in  agonies  of 
mind  that  can  well  be  imagined,  for  safety  or  inevitable 
ruin  were  in  the  balance.  At  sunrise  he  saw  approach- 
ing him,  instead  of  Claparon,  a  bailiff  of  the  Court  of 
commerce,  who  produced  a  judgment  against  him'  in 
regular  form,  and  informed  him  that  he  must  go  with 
him  to  Clichy. 

Cerizet  had  made  an  arrangement  with  one  of  the 
creditors  of  the  luckless  notary,  pledging  himself  to 
deliver  up  the  debtor  on  payment  to  himself  of  half  the 
debt.  Out  of  the  ten  thousand  francs  promised  to 
Claparon,  the  victim  of  this  trap  was  obliged,  in  order 
to  obtain  his  liberty,  to  pay  six  thousand  down,  the 
amount  of  his  debt. 

On  receiving  his  share  of  this  extortion  Cerizet  said 
to  himself:  "There  's  three  thousand  to  make  Claparon 
clear  out." 

Cerizet  then  returned  to  the  notary  and  said:  "Claparon 
is  a  scoundrel,  monsieur;  he  has  received  fifteen  thou- 
sand francs  from  the  proposed  purchaser  of  your  house, 
who  will  now,  of  course,  become  the  owner.  Threaten 
to  reveal  his  lurking-place  to  his  creditors,  and  to  have 
him  sued  for  fraudulent  bankruptcy,  and  he  '11  give  you 
half." 

In  his  wrath  the  notary  wrote  a  fulminating  letter 
to  Claparon.  Claparon,  alarmed,  feared  an  arrest,  and 
Cerizet  offered  to  get  him  a  passport." 

"You  have  played  me  many  a  trick,  Claparon,"  "he 
said,  "but  listen  to  me  now,  and  you  can  judge  of  my 
kindness.  I  possess,  as  my  whole  means,  three  thousand 
francs;  I'll  give  them  to  you;  start  for  America,  and 
make  your  fortune  there,  as  I  am  trying  to  make  mine 
here." 

That  evening  Claparon,  carefully  disguised  by  Cerizet, 
left  for  Havre  by  the  diligence.     Cerizet  remained  master 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  165 

of  the  fifteen  thousand  francs  to  be  paid  to  Claparon, 
and  he  awaited  Theodose  with  the  payment  thereof 
tranquilly. 

"The  limit  for  bidding-in  is  passed,"  thought  Theo- 
dose, as  he  went  to  find  Dutocq  and  ask  him  to  bring 
Cerizet  to  his  office.  "Suppose  I  were  now  to  make  an 
effort  to  get  rid  of  my  leech?" 

"You  can't  settle  this  affair  anywhere  but  at  Cerizet's, 
because  Claparon  must  be  present,  and  he  is  hiding 
there,"  said  Dutocq. 

Accordingly,  Theodose  went,  between  seven  and  eight 
o'clock,  to  the  den  of  the  "banker  of  the  poor,"  whom 
Dutocq  had  notified  of  his  coming.  Cerizet  received 
him  in  the  horrible  kitchen  where  miseries  and  sorrows 
were  chopped  and  cooked,  as  we  have  seen  already.  The 
pair  then  walked  up  and  down,  precisely  like  two  animals 
in  a  cage,  while  mutually  playing  the  following  scene:  — 

"Have  you  brought  the  fifteen  thousand  francs?  " 

"No,  but  I  have  them  at  home." 

"Why  not  have  them  in  your  pocket?  "  asked  Cerizet, 
sharply. 

"I'll  tell  you,"  replied  Theodose,  who,  as  he  walked 
from  the  rue  Saint-Dominique  to  the  Estrapade,  had 
decided  on  his  course  of  action. 

The  Provencal,  writhing  upon  the  gridiron  on  which 
his  partners  held  him,  became  suddenly  possessed  with 
a  good  idea,  which  flashed  from  the  body  of  the  live  coal 
under  him.  Peril  has  gleams  of  light.  He  resolved  to 
rely  on  the  power  of  frankness,  which  affects  all  men, 
even  swindlers.  Every  one  is  grateful  to  an  adversary 
who  bares  himself  to  the  waist  in  a  duel. 

"Well!  "  said  Cerizet,  "now  the  humbug  begins." 

The  words  seemed  to  come  wholly  through  the  hole  in 
his  nose  with  horrible  intonations. 

"You  have  put  me  in  a  magnificent  position,  and 
I  shall  never  forget  the  service  you  have  done  me,  my 
friend,"  began  Theodose,  with  emotion. 


106  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Oh!  that 's  how  you  take  it,  is  it?  "  said  Cerizet. 

"Listen  to  me;  you  dou't  understand  my  intentions." 

"Yes,  I  do!  "  replied  the  lender  by  "the  little  week." 

"No,  you  don't." 

"You  intend  not  to  give  up  those  fifteen  thousand 
francs." 

Theodose  shrugged  his  shoulders  and  looked  fixedly 
at  Cerizet,  who,  struck  by  the  two  motions,  kept  silence. 

"Would  you  live  in  my  position,  knowing  yourself 
within  range  of  a  cannon  loaded  with  grape-shot,  with- 
out feeling  a  strong  desire  to  get  out  of  it?  Now  listen 
to  me  carefully.  You  are  doing  a  dangerous  business, 
and  you  would  be  glad  enough  to  have  some  solid  pro- 
tection in  the  very  heart  of  the  magistracy  of  Paris. 
If  I  can  continue  my  present  course,  I  shall  be  substi- 
tute attorney-general,  possibly  attorney-general,  in  three 
years.  I  offer  you  to-day  the  offices  of  a  devoted  friend- 
ship, which  will  serve  you  hereafter  most  assuredly,  if 
only  to  replace  you  in  an  honorable  position.  Here  are 
my  conditions  —  " 

"Conditions!  "  exclaimed  Cerizet. 

"In  ten  minutes  I  will  bring  you  twenty-five  thousand 
francs  if  you  return  to  me  all  the  notes  which  you  have 
against  me." 

"But  Dutocq?  and  Claparon?"  said  Cerizet. 

"Leave  them  in  the  lurch!  "  replied  Theodose,  with 
his  lips  at  Cerizet's  ear. 

"That's  a  pretty  thing  to  say!  "  cried  Cerizet.  "And 
so  you  have  invented  this  little  game  of  hocus-pocus 
because  you  hold  in  your  fingers  fifteen  thousand  francs 
that  don't  belong  to  you!  " 

"But  I  've  added  ten  thousand  to  them.  Besides,  you 
and  I  know  each  other." 

"If  you  are  able  to  get  ten  thousand  francs  out  of 
your  bourgeois  you  can  surely  get  fifteen,"  said  Cerizet, 
sharply.  "For  thirty  thousand,  I 'm  your  man.  Frank- 
ness for  frankness,  you  know." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  167 

"You  ask  the  impossible,"  replied  Theodose.  "At 
this  very  moment,  if  you  had  to  do  with  Claparon  Instead 
of  with  me,  your  fifteen  thousand  would  be  lost,  for 
Thuillier  is  to-day  the  owner  of  that  house." 

"I'll  speak  to  Claparon,"  said  Cerizet,  pretending  to 
go  and  consult  him,  and  mounting  the  stairs  to  the  bed- 
room, from  which  Claparon  had  only  just  departed  on 
his  road  to  Havre. 

The  two  adversaries  had  been  speaking,  we  should 
here  remark,  in  a  manner  not  to  be  overheard ;  and  every 
time  that  Theodose  raised  his  voice  Cerizet  would  make 
a  gesture,  intimating  that  Claparon,  from  above,  might 
be  listening.  The  five  minutes  during  which  Theodose 
heard  what  seemed  to  be  the  murmuring  of  two  voices 
were  torture  to  him,  for  he  had  staked  his  very  life  upon 
the  issue.  Cerizet  at  last  came  down,  with  a  smile  upon 
his  lips,  his  eyes  sparkling  with  infernal  mischief,  his 
whole  frame  quivering  in  his  joy,  a  Lucifer  of  gayety! 

"I  know  nothing,  so  it  seems!"  he  cried,  shaking  his 
shoulders,  "but  Claparon  knows  a  great  deal;  he  has 
worked  with  the  big-wig  bankers,  and  when  I  told  what 
you  wanted  he  began  to  laugh,  and  said,  ■  I  thought  as 
much ! '  You  will  have  to  bring  me  the  twenty-five  thou- 
sand you  offer  me  to-morrow  morning,  my  lad;  and  as 
much  more  before  you  can  recover  your  notes." 

"Why?"  asked  Theodose,  feeling  his  spinal  column 
liquidizing  as  if  the  discharge  of  some  inward  electric 
fluid  had  melted  it. 

"The  house  is  ours." 

"How?" 

"Claparon  has  bid  it  in  under  the  name  of  one  of  his 
creditors,  a  little  toad  named  Sauvaignou.  Desroches, 
the  lawyer,  has  taken  the  case,  and  you  '11  get  a  notice 
to-morrow.  This  affair  will  oblige  Claparon,  Dutocq,  and 
me  to  raise  funds.  What  would  become  of  me  without 
Claparon !     So  I  forgive  him  —  yes,  I  forgave  him,  and, 


168  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

though  you  may  not  believe  it,  my  dear  friend,  I  actually 
kissed  him!     Change  your  terms." 

The  last  three  words  were  horrible  to  hear,  especially 
when  illustrated  by  the  face  of  the  speaker,  who  amused 
himself  by  playing  a  scene  from  the  "Legataire,"  all  the 
while  studying  attentively  the  Provencal's  character. 

"Oh,  Cerizet!  "  cried  Theodose;  "I,  who  wished  to 
do  you  so  much  good ! " 

"Don't  you  see,  my  dear  fellow,"  returned  Cerizet, 
"that  between  you  and  me  there  ought  to  be  this, — " 
and  he  struck  his  heart, — "of  which  you  have  none. 
As  soon  as  you  thought  you  had  a  lever  on  us,  you  have 
tried  to  knock  us  over.  I  saved  you  from  the  horrors  of 
starvation  and  vermin!  You'll  die  like  the  idiot  you 
are.  We  put  you  on  the  high-road  to  fortune  ;  we  gave 
you  a  fine  social  skin  and  a  position  in  which  you  could 
grasp  the  future  —  and  look  what  you  do!  Now  I  know 
youl  and  from  this  time  forth,  we  shall  go  armed." 

"Then  it  is  war  between  us!  "  exclaimed  Theodose. 

"You  fired  first,"  returned  Cerizet. 

"If  you  pull  me  down,  farewell  to  your  hopes  and 
plans;  if  you  don't  pull  me  down,  you  have  in  me  an 
enemy." 

"That's  just  what  I  said  yesterday  to  Dutocq;  but, 
how  can  we  help  it?  We  are  forced  to  choose  between 
the  two  alternatives  —  we  must  go  according  to  circum- 
stances. I  'm  a  good-natured  fellow  myself,"  he  added, 
after  a  pause;  "bring  me  your  twenty-five  thousand 
francs  to-morrow  morning  and  Thuillier  shall  keep  the 
house.  We  '11  continue  to  help  you  at  both  ends,  but 
you  '11  have  to  pay  up,  my  boy.  After  what  has  just 
happened  that's  pretty  kind,  isn't  it?" 

And  Cerizet  patted  Theodose  on  the  shoulder,  with  a 
cynicism  that  seemed  to  brand  him  more  than  the  iron 
of  the  galleys. 

"Well,  give  me  till  to-morrow  at  mid-day,"  replied  the 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  169 

Provencal,  "for  there'll  be,  as  you  said,  some  manipula- 
tion to  do." 

"I  '11  try  to  keep  Claparon  quiet;  he  's  in  sueh  a  hurry, 
that  man !  " 

" To-morrow,  then,"  said  Theodose,  in  the  tone  of  a 
man  who  decides  on  his  course. 

"Good-night,  friend,"  said  Cerizet,  in  his  nasal 
tone,  which  degraded  the  finest  word  in  the  language. 
"There  's  one  who  has  got  a  mouthful  to  suck!  "  thought 
Cerizet,  as  he  watched  Theodose  going  down  the  street 
with  the  step  of  a  dazed  man. 

When  la  Peyrade  reached  the  rue  des  Postes  he  went 
with  rapid  strides  to  Madame  Colleville's  house,  exciting 
himself  as  he  walked  along,  and  talking  aloud.  The  fire 
of  his  roused  passions  and  the  sort  of  inward  conflagra- 
tion of  which  many  Parisians  are  conscious  (for  such 
situations  abound  in  Paris)  brought  nim  finally  to  a 
pitch  of  frenzy  and  eloquence  which  found  expression, 
as  he  turned  into  the  rue  des  Deux-Eglises,  in  the 
words:  — 

"I  will  kill  him!" 

"There's  a  fellow  who  is  not  content!"  said  a  pass- 
ing workman,  and  the  jesting  words  calmed  the  incan- 
descent madness  to  which  Theodose  was  a  prey. 

As  he  left  Cerizet' s  the  idea  came  to  him  to  go  to 
Flavie  and  tell  her  all.  Southern  natures  are  born  thus 
—  strong  until  certain  passions  arise,  and  then  collapsed. 
He  entered  Flavie's  room ;  she  was  alone,  and  when  she 
saw  Theodose  she  fancied  her  last  hour  had  come. 

"What  is  the  matter?"  she  cried. 

"I  —  I  —  "  he  said.     "Do  you  love  me,  Flavie?  " 

"Oh!  how  can  you  doubt  it?" 

"Do  you  love  me  absolutely?  —  if  I  were  criminal, 
even  ?  " 

"Has  he  murdered  some  one?  "  she  thought,  replying 
to  his  question  by  a  nod. 


170  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Theodose,  thankful  to  seize  even  this  branch  of 
willow,  drew  a  chair  beside  Flavie's  sofa,  and  there  gave 
way  to  sobs  that  might  have  touched  the  oldest  judge, 
while  torrents  of  tears  began  to  flow  from  his  eyes. 

Flavie  rose  and  left  the  room  to  say  to  her  maid:  "I 
am  not  at  home  to  any  one."  Then  she  closed  all  doors 
and  returned  to  Theodose,  moved  to  the  utmost  pitch  of 
maternal  solicitude.  She  found  him  stretched  out,  his 
head  thrown  back,  and  weeping.  He  had  taken  out  his 
handkerchief,  and  when  Flavie  tried  to  move  it  from 
his  face  it  was  heavy  with  tears. 

"But  what  is  the  matter?"  she  asked;  "what  ails 
you?" 

Nature,  more  impressive  than  art,  served  Theodose 
well;  no  longer  was  he  playing  a  part;  he  was  himself; 
this  nervous  crisis  and  these  tears  were  the  winding  up 
of  his  preceding  scenes  of  acted  comedy. 

"You  are  a  child,"  she  said,  in  a  gentle  voice,  stroking 
his  hair  softly. 

"I  have  but  you,  you  only,  in  all  the  world!"  he 
replied,  kissing  her  hands  with  a  sort  of  passion;  "and 
if  you  are  true  to  me,  if  you  are  mine,  as  the  body 
belongs  to  the  soul  and  the  soul  to  the  body,  then  —  " 
he  added,  recovering  himself  with  infinite  grace,  ilthen  I 
can  have  courage." 

He  rose,  and  walked  about  the  room. 

"Yes,  I  will  struggle;  I  will  recover  my  strength,  like 
Antaeus,  from  a  fall ;  I  will  strangle  with  my  own  hands 
the  serpents  that  entwine  me,  that  kiss  me  with  serpent 
kisses,  that  slaver  my  cheeks,  that  suck  my  blood,  my 
honor!  Oh,  misery!  oh,  poverty!  Oh,  how  great  are 
they  who  can  stand  erect  and  carry  high  their  heads!  I 
had  better  have  let  myself  die  of  hunger,  there,  on  my 
wretched  pallet,  three  and  a  half  years  ago!  A  coffin 
is  a  softer  bed  to  lie  in  than  the  life  I  lead!  It  is 
eighteen  months  that  I  have  fed  on  bourgeois  I  and  now, 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  171 

at  the  moment  of  attaining  an  honest,  fortunate  life,  a 
magnificent  future,  at  the  moment  when  I  was  about  to 
sit  down  to  the  social  banquet,  the  executioner  strikes 
me  on  the  shoulder!  Yes,  the  monster!  he  struck  me 
there,  on  my  shoulder,  and  said  to  me :  '  Pay  thy  dues  to 
the  devil,  or  die ! '  And  shall  I  not  crush  them  ?  Shall 
I  not  force  my  arm  down  their  throats  to  their  very 
entrails?  Yes,  yes,  I  will,  I  will!  See,  Flavie,  my 
eyes  are  dry  now.  Ha,  ha!  now  I  laugh;  I  feel  my 
strength  come  back  to  me;  power  is  mine!  Oh!  say 
that  you  love  me;  say  it  again!  At  this  moment  it 
sounds  like  the  word  '  Pardon  '  to  the  man  condemned  to 
death!  " 

"You  are  terrible,  my  friend!"  cried  Flavie.  "Oh! 
you  are  killing  me." 

She  understood  nothing  of  all  this,  but  she  fell  upon 
the  sofa,  exhausted  by  the  spectacle.  Theodose  flung 
himself  at  her  feet. 

"Forgive  me!  forgive  me!  "  he  said. 

"But  what  is  the  matter?  what  is  it?"  she  asked 
again. 

"They  are  trying  to  destroy  me.  Oh!  promise  to  give 
me  Celeste,  and  you  shall  see  what  a  glorious  life  I  will 
make  you  share.  If  you  hesitate  —  very  good ;  that  is 
saying  you  will  be  wholly  mine,  and  I  will  have  you!  " 

He  made  so  rapid  a  movement  that  Flavie,  terrified, 
rose  and  moved  away. 

"Oh!  my  saint!"  he  cried,  "at  thy  feet  I  fall  —  a 
miracle!  God  is  for  me,  surely!  A  flash  of  light  has 
come  to  me  —  an  idea  —  suddenly !  Oh,  thanks,  my  good 
angel,  my  grand  Saint-Theodose!  thou  hast  saved  me!  " 

Flavie  could  not  help  admiring  that  chameleon  being : 
one  knee  on  the  floor,  his  hands  crossed  on  his  breast, 
and  his  eyes  raised  to  heaven  in  religious  ecstasy,  he 
recited  a  prayer;  he  was  a  fervent  Catholic;  he  rever- 
ently crossed  himself.  It  was  fine;  like  the  vision  of 
Saint- Jer6me. 


172  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Adieu!"  he  said,  with  a  melancholy  look  and  a 
moving  tone  of  voice. 

"Oh!  "  cried  Flavie,  "leave  me  this  handkerchief." 

The'odose  rushed  away  like  one  possessed,  sprang  into 
the  street,  and  darted  towards  the  Thuilliers',  but  turned, 
saw  Flavie  at  her  window,  and  made  her  a  little  sign  of 
triumph. 

uWhat  a  man!  "  she  thought  to  herself. 

"Dear,  good  friend,"  he  said  to  Thuillier,  in  a  calm 
and  gentle,  almost  caressing  voice,  "we  have  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  atrocious  scoundrels.  But  I  mean  to  read 
them  a  lesson." 

"What  has  happened?"  asked  Brigitte. 

"They  want  twenty-five  thousand  francs,  and,  in  order 
to  get  the  better  of  us,  the  notary,  or  his  accomplices, 
have  determined  to  bid  in  the  property.  Thuillier,  put 
five  thousand  francs  in  your  pocket,  and  come  with  me; 
I  will  secure  that  house  to  you.  I  am  making  myself 
implacable  enemies!  "  he  cried;  "they  are  seeking  to 
destroy  me  morally.  But  all  I  ask  is  that  you  will  dis- 
regard their  infamous  calumnies  and  feel  no  change  of 
heart  to  me.  After  all,  what  is  it?  If  I  succeed,  you 
will  only  have  paid  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand 
francs  for  the  house  instead  of  one  hundred  and  twenty." 

"Provided  the  same  thing  does  n't  happen  again,"  said 
Brigitte,  uneasily,  her  eyes  dilating  under  the  effect  of  a 
violent  suspicion. 

"Preferred  creditors  have  alone  the  right  to  bid  in 
property,  and  as,  in  this  case,  there  is  but  one,  and  he 
has  used  that  right,  we  are  safe.  The  amount  of  his 
claim  is  really  only  two  thousand  francs,  but  there  are 
lawyers,  attorneys,  and  so  forth,  to  pay  in  such  matters, 
and  we  shall  have  to  drop  a  note  of  a  thousand  francs  to 
make  the  creditor  happy." 

"Go,  Thuillier,"  said  Brigitte,  "get  your  hat  and 
gloves,  and  take  the  money  —  from  you  know  where." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  173 

"As  I  paid  those  fifteen  thousand  francs  without  suc- 
cess, I  don't  wish  to  have  any  more  money  pass  through 
my  hands.  Thuillier  must  pay  it  himself,"  said  Theo- 
dose,  when  he  found  himself  alone  with  Brigitte.  "You 
have,  however,  gained  twenty  thousand  on  the  contract  I 
enabled  you  to  make  with  Grindot,  who  thought  he  was 
serving  the  notary,  and  you  own  a  piece  of  property 
which  in  five  years  will  be  worth  nearly  a  million.  It  is 
what  is  called  a  '  boulevard  corner.'  " 

Brigitte  listened  uneasily,  precisely  like  a  cat  which 
hears  a  mouse  within  the  wall.  She  looked  Theodose 
straight  in  the  eye,  and,  in  spite  of  the  truth  of  his 
remarks,  doubts  possessed  her. 

"What  troubles  you,  little  aunt?" 

"Oh!  I  shall  be  in  mortal  terror  until  that  property  is 
securely  ours." 

"You  would  be  willing  to  give  twenty  thousand  francs, 
wouldn't  you,"  said  Theodose,  "to  make  sure  that 
Thuillier  was  what  we  call,  in  law,  '  owner  not  dispos- 
sessable '  of  that  property  ?  Well,  then,  remember  that 
I  have  saved  you  twice  that  amount." 

"Where  are  we  going?"  asked  Thuillier,  returning. 

"To  Maitre  Godeschal!  We  must  employ  him  as  our 
attorney." 

"But  we  refused  him  for  Celeste." 

"Well,  that 's  one  reason  for  going  to  him,"  replied 
Theodose.  "I  have  taken  his  measure;  he's  a  man  of 
honor,  and  he  '11  think  it  a  fine  thing  to  do  you  a 
service." 

Godeschal,  now  Derville's  successor,  had  formerly 
been,  for  more  than  ten  years,  head-clerk  with  Desroches. 
Theodose,  to  whom  that  circumstance  was  known,  seemed 
to  hear  the  name  flung  into  his  ear  in  the  midst  of  his 
despair  by  an  inward  voice,  and  he  foresaw  a  possibility 
of  wrenching  from  the  hands  of  Claparon  the  weapon 
with  which  Cerizet  had  threatened  him.     He  must,  how- 


174  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

ever,  in  the  first  instance,  gain  an  entrance  to  Desroches, 
and  get  some  light  on  the  actual  situation  of  his  enemies. 
Godeschal,  by  reason  of  the  iqtimacy  still  existing  be- 
tween the  former  clerk  and  his  old  master,  could  be  his 
go-between.  When  the  attorneys  of  Paris  have  ties  like 
those  which  bound  Godeschal  and  Desroches  together, 
they  live  in  true  fraternity,  and  the  result  is  a  facility 
in  arranging  any  matters  which  are,  as  one  may  say, 
arrangeable.  They  obtain  from  one  another,  on  the 
ground  of  reciprocity,  all  possible  concessions  by  the 
application  of  the  proverb,  "Pass  me  the  rhubarb,  and 
I  '11  pass  you  the  senna,"  which  is  put  in  practice  in  all 
professions,  between  ministers,  soldiers,  judges,  busi- 
ness men;  wherever,  in  short,  enmity  has  not  raised 
barriers  too  strong  and  high  between  the  parties. 

"I  gain  a  pretty  good  fee  out  of  this  compromise,"  is 
a  reason  that  needs  no  expression  in  words :  it  is  visible 
in  the  gesture,  the  tone,  the  glance;  and  as  attorneys 
and  solicitors  meet  constantly  on  this  ground,  the  matter, 
whatever  it  is,  is  arranged.  The  counterpoise  of  this 
fraternal  system  is  found  in  what  we  may  call  profes- 
sional conscience.  The  public  must  believe  the  physician 
who  says,  giving  medical  testimony,  "This  body  con- 
tains arsenic;"  nothing  is  supposed  to  exceed  the 
integrity  of  the  legislator,  the  independence  of  the 
cabinet  minister.  In  like  manner,  the  attorney  of  Paris 
says  to  his  brother  lawyer,  good-humoredly,  "You  can't 
obtain  that;  my  client  is  furious,"  and  the  other  answers, 
"Very  good;  I  must  do  without  it." 

Now,  la  Peyrade,  a  shrewd  man,  had  worn  his  legal 
gown  about  the  Palais  long  enough  to  know  how  these 
judicial  morals  might  be  made  to  serve  his  purpose. 

"Sit  in  the  carriage,"  he  said  to  Thuillier,  when  they 
reached  the  rue  Vivienne,  where  Godeschal  was  now 
master  of  the  practice  he  had  formerly  served  as  clerk. 
"You  needn't  show  yourself  until  he  undertakes  the 
affair." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  175 

It  was  eleven  o'clock  at  night;  la  Peyrade  was  not 
mistaken  in  supposing  that  he  should  find  a  newly  fledged 
master  of  a  practice  in  his  office  at  that  hour. 

"To  what  do  I  owe  this  visit,  monsieur?"  said 
Godeschal,  coming  forward  to  meet  the  barrister. 

Foreigners,  provincials,  and  persons  in  high  society 
may  not  be  aware  that  barristers  are  to  attorneys  what 
generals  are  to  marshals.  There  exists  a  line  of  demar- 
cation, strictly  maintained,  between  the  order  of  barris- 
ters and  the  guild  of  attorneys  and  solicitors  in  Paris. 
However  venerable  an  attorney  may  be,  however  capable 
and  strong  in  his  profession,  he  must  go  to  the  barrister. 
The  attorney  is  the  administrator,  who  maps  out  the 
plan  of  the  campaign,  collects  the  munitions  of  war,  and 
puts  the  force  in  motion;  the  barrister  gives  battle.  It 
is  not  known  why  the  law  gives  a  man  two  men  to  defend 
him  any  more  than  it  is  known  why  an  author  is  forced 
to  have  both  printer  and  publisher.  The  rules  of  the 
bar  forbid  its  members  to  do  any  act  belonging  to  the 
guild  of  attorneys.  It  is  very  rare  that  a  barrister  puts 
his  foot  in  an  attorney's  office;  the  two  classes  meet  in 
the  law-courts.  In  society,  there  is  no  barrier  between 
them,  and  some  barristers,  those  in  la  Peyrade's  situa- 
tion particularly,  demean  themselves  by  calling  occasion- 
ally on  attorneys,  though  even  these  cases  are  rare,  and 
are  usually  excused  by  some  special  urgency. 

"I  have  come  on  important  business,"  replied  la 
Peyrade ;  it  concerns,  especially,  a  question  of  delicacy 
which  you  and  I  ought  to  solve  together.  Thuillier  is 
below,  in  a  carriage,  and  I  have  come  up  to  see  you,  not 
as  a  barrister,  but  as  his  friend.  You  are  in  a  position 
to  do  him  an  immense  service ;  and  I  have  told  him  that 
you  have  too  noble  a  soul  (as  a  worthy  successor  of  our 
great  Dervillemust  have)  not  to  put  your  utmost  capacity 
at  his  orders.     Here  's  the  affair." 

After  explaining,  wholly  to  his  own  advantage,  the 


176  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

swindling  trick  which  must,  he  said,  be  met  with  cau- 
tion and  ability,  the  barrister  developed  his  plan  of 
campaign. 

"You  ought,  my  dear  maitre,  to  go  this  very  evening 
to  Desroches,  explain  the  whole  plot  and  persuade  him  to 
send  to-morrow  for  his  client,  this  Sauvaignou.  We  '11 
confess  the  fellow  between  us,  and  if  he  wants  a  note 
of  a  thousand  francs  over  and  above  the  amount  of  his 
claim,  we'll  let  him  have  it;  not  counting  the  five  hun- 
dred for  you  and  as  much  more  for  Desroches,  provided 
Thuillier  receives  the  relinquishment  of  his  claim  by  ten 
o'clock  to-morrow  morning.  What  does  this  Sauvaignou 
want?  Nothing  but  money.  Well,  a  haggler  like  that 
won't  resist  the  attraction  of  an  extra  thousand  francs, 
especially  if  he  is  only  the  instrument  of  a  cupidity 
behind  him.  It  is  no  matter  to  us  how  he  fights  it  out 
with  those  who  prompt  him.  Now,  then,  do  you  think 
you  can  get  the  Thuillier  family  out  of  this?  " 

"I  '11  go  and  see  Desroches  at  once,"  said  Godeschal. 

"Not  before  Thuillier  gives  you  a  power  of  attorney 
and  five  thousand  francs.  The  money  should  be  on  the 
table  in  a  case  like  this." 

After  the  interview  with  Thuillier  was  over,  la  Peyrade 
took  Godeschal  in  the  carriage  to  the  rue  du  Bethizy, 
where  Desroches  lived,  explaining  that  it  was  on  their 
way  back  to  the  rue  Saint-Dominique  d'Enfer.  When 
they  stopped  at  Desroches's  door  la  Peyrade  made  an 
appointment  with  Godeschal  to  meet  him  there  the  next 
morning  at  seven  o'clock. 

La  Peyrade' s  whole  future  and  fortune  lay  in  the  out- 
come of  this  conference.  It  is  therefore  not  astonishing 
that  he  disregarded  the  customs  of  the  bar  and  went  to 
Desroches's  office,  to  study  Sauvaignou  and  take  part  in 
the  struggle,  in  spite  of  the  danger  he  ran  in  thus  placing 
himself  visibly  before  the  eyes  of  one  of  the  most  dreaded 
attorneys  in  Paris. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  177 

As  he  entered  the  office  and  made  his  salutations,  he 
took  note  of  Sauvaignou.  The  man  was,  as  the  name 
had  already  told  him,  from  Marseilles,  —  the  foreman  of 
a  master-carpenter,  intrusted  with  the  giving  out  of  sub- 
contracts. The  profits  of  this  work  consisted  of  what  he 
could  make  between  the  price  he  paid  for  the  work  and 
that  paid  to  him  by  the  master-carpenter;  this  agreement 
being  exclusive  of  material,  his  contract  being  only  for 
labor.  The  master-carpenter  had  failed.  Sauvaignou 
had  thereupon  appealed  to  the  court  of  commerce  for 
recognition  as  creditor  with  a  lien  on  the  property.  He 
was  a  stocky  little  man,  dressed  in  a  gray  linen  blouse, 
with  a  cap  on  his  head,  and  was  seated  in  an  armchair. 
Three  banknotes,  of  a  thousand  francs  each,  lying  visibly 
before  him  on  Desroches's  desk,  informed  la  Peyrade 
that  the  negotiation  had  already  taken  place,  and  that 
the  lawyers  were  worsted.  Godeschal's  eyes  told  the 
rest,  and  the  glance  which  Desroches  cast  at  the  "  poor 
man's  advocate  "  was  like  the  blow  of  a  pick-axe  into 
the  earth  of  a  grave.  Stimulated  by  his  danger,  the 
Provencal  became  magnificent.  He  coolly  took  up 
the  bank-notes  and  folded  them,  as  if  to  put  them  in 
his  pocket,  saying  to  Desroches :  — 

"Thuillier  has  changed  his  mind." 

"Very  good;  then  we  are  all  agreed,"  said  the  terrible 
attorney. 

"Yes;  your  client  must  now  hand  over  to  us  the  fifty 
thousand  francs  we  have  spent  on  finishing  the  house, 
according  to  the  contract  between  Thuillier  and  Grindot. 
I  did  not  tell  you  that  yesterday,"  he  added,  turning  to 
Godeschal. 

"Do  you  hear  that?"  said  Desroches  to  Sauvaignou. 
That  's  a  case  I  shall  not  touch  without  proper 
guarantees." 

"But,  messieurs,"  said  Sauvaignou,  "I  can't  negotiate 
this  matter  until  I  have  seen  the  worthy  man  who  paid 

12 


178  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

me  five  hundred  francs  on  account  for  having  signed  him 
that  bit  of  a  proxy." 

"Are  you  from  Marseilles?"  said  la  Peyrade,  in 
patois. 

"Oh!  if  he  tackles  him  with  patois  the  fellow  is 
beaten,"  said  Godeschal  to  Desroches,  in  a  low  tone. 

"Yes,  monsieur,"  replied  the  Marseillais. 

"Well,  you  poor  devil,"  continued  Theodose,  "don't 
you  see  that  they  want  to  ruin  you?  Shall  I  tell  you 
what  you  ought  to  do?  Pocket  these  three  thousand 
francs,  and  when  your  worthy  man  comes  after  you,  take 
your  rule  and  hit  him  a  rap  over  the  knuckles;  tell  him 
he's  a  rascal  who  wants  you  to  do  his  dirty  work,  and 
instead  of  that  you  revoke  your  proxy  and  will  pay  him 
his  five  hundred  francs  in  the  week  with  three  Thursdays. 
Then  be  off  with  you  to  Marseilles  with  these  three 
thousand  francs  and  your  savings  in  your  pocket.  If 
anything  happens  to  you  there,  let  me  know  through 
these  gentlemen,  and  I  '11  get  you  out  of  the  scrape;  for, 
don't  you  see?  I'm  not  only  a  Provencal,  but  I'm  also 
one  of  the  leading  lawyers  in  Paris,  and  the  friend  of 
the  poor." 

When  the  workman  found  a  compatriot  sanctioning  in 
a  tone  of  authority  the  reasons  by  which  he  could  betray 
Cerizet,  he  capitulated,  asking,  however,  for  three  thou- 
sand five  hundred  francs.  That  demand  having  been 
granted  he  remarked:  — 

"It  is  none  too  much  for  a  rap  over  the  knuckles;  he 
might  put  me  in  prison  for  assault." 

"Well,  you  needn't  strike  unless  he  insults  you," 
replied  la  Peyrade,  "and  that's  self-defence." 

When  Desroches  had  assured  him  that  la  Peyrade  was 
really  a  barrister  in  good  standing,  Sauvaignou  signed 
the  relinquishment,  which  contained  a  receipt  for  the 
amount,  principal  and  interest,  of  his  claim,  made  in 
duplicate  between  himself  and  Thuillier,  and  witnessed 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  179 

by  the  two  attorneys;  so  that  the  paper  was  a  final 
settlement  of  the  whole  matter. 

"We  '11  leave  the  remaining  fifteen  hundred  between 
you,"  whispered  la  Peyrade  to  Desroches  and  Godeschal, 
"on  condition  that  you  give  me  the  relinquishment,  which 
I  will  have  Thuillier  accept  and  sign  before  his  notary, 
Cardot.     Poor  man !  he  never  closed  his  eyes  all  night !  " 

"Very  well,"  replied  Desroches.  "You  may  congrat- 
ulate yourself,"  he  added,  making  Sauvaignou  sign  the 
paper,  "that  you've  earned  that  money  pretty  easily." 

"It  is  really  mine,  is  n't  it,  monsieur?  "  said  the  Mar- 
seillais,  already  uneasy. 

"Yes,  and  legally,  too,"  replied  Desroches,  "only 
you  must  let  your  man  know  this  morning  that  you  have 
revoked  your  proxy  under  date  of  yesterday.  Go  out 
through  my  clerk's  office,  here,  this  way." 

Desroches  told  his  head-clerk  what  the  man  was  to  do, 
and  he  sent  a  pupil-clerk  with  him  to  see  that  a  sheriff's 
officer  carried  the  notice  to  Cerizet  before  ten  o'clock. 

"I  thank  you,  Desroches,"  said  la  Peyrade,  pressing 
the  attorney's  hand;  "you  think  of  everything;  I  shall 
never  forget  this  service." 

"Don't  deposit  the  deed  with  Cardot  till  after  twelve 
o'clock,"  returned  Desroches. 

"Hey!  comrade,"  cried  the  barrister,  in  Provencal, 
following  Sauvaignou  into  the  next  room,  "take  your 
Margot  to  walk  about  Belleville,  and  be  sure  you  don't 
go  home." 

"I  hear,"  said  Sauvaignou.  "I'm  off  to-morrow; 
adieu !  " 

"  Adieu,"  returned  la  Peyrade,  with  a  Provenqal  cry. 

"There  is  something  behind  all  this,"  said  Desroches 
in  an  undertone  to  Godeschal,  as  la  Peyrade  followed 
Sauvaignou  into  the  clerk's  office. 

"The  Thuilliers  get  a  splendid  piece  of  property  for 
next  to  nothing,"  replied  Godeschal;  "that's  all." 


180  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"La  Peyrade  and  Cerizet  look  to  me  like  two  divers 
who  are  fighting  under  water,"  replied  Desroches. 
"What  am  I  to  say  to  Cerizet,  who  put  the  matter  in 
my  hands  ?  •  he  added,  as  the  barrister  returned  to 
them. 

"Tell  him  that  Sauvaignou  forced  your  hand,"  replied 
la  Peyrade. 

"And  you  fear  nothing?"  said  Desroches,  in  a  sudden 
manner. 

"I?  oh,  no!     I  want  to  give  Cerizet  a  lesson." 

"To-morrow  I  shall  know  the  truth,"  said  Desroches, 
in  a  low  tone,  to  Godeschal;  "no  one  chatters  like  a 
beaten  man." 

La  Peyrade  departed,  carrying  with  him  the  deed  of 
relinquishment.  At  eleven  o'clock  he  was  in  the  court- 
room of  the  justice-of-peace,  perfectly  calm,  and  firm. 
When  he  saw  Cerizet  come  in,  pale  with  rage,  his  eyes 
full  of  venom,  he  said  in  his  ear:  — 

"My  dear  friend,  I  'm  a  pretty  good  fellow  myself, 
and  I  hold  that  twenty-five  thousand  francs  in  good 
bank-bills  at  your  disposal,  whenever  you  will  return  to 
me  those  notes  of  mine  which  you  hold." 

Cerizet  looked  at  the  advocate  of  the  poor,  without 
being  able  to  say  one  word  in  reply;  he  was  green;  the 
bile  had  struck  in. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  181 


XIII. 

THE    PERVERSITY    OF    DOVES. 

"I  am  a  non-dispossessable  property-owner!"  cried 
Thuillier,  coming  home  after  visiting  his  notary.  "No 
human  power  can  get  that  house  away  from  me.  Cardot 
says  so." 

The  bourgeoisie  think  much  more  of  what  their  notary 
tells  them  than  of  what  their  attorneys  say.  The  notary 
is  nearer  to  them  than  any  other  ministerial  officer.  The 
Parisian  bourgeois  never  pays  a  visit  to  his  attorney 
without  a  sense  of  fear;  whereas  he  mounts  the  stairs 
with  ever-renewed  pleasure  to  see  his  notary;  he  admires 
that  official's  virtue  and  his  sound  good  sense. 

"Cardot,  who  is  looking  for  an  apartment  for  one  of 
his  clients,  wants  to  know  about  our  second  floor,"  con- 
tinued Thuillier.  "If  I  choose  he  '11  introduce  to  me  on 
Sunday  a  tenant  who  is  ready  to  sign  a  lease  for  eighteen 
years  at  forty  thousand  francs  and  taxes !  What  do  you 
say  to  that,  Brigitte  ?  " 

"Better  wait,"  she  replied.  "Ah!  that  dear  Theodose, 
what  a  fright  he  gave  me !  " 

"Hey!  my  dearest  girl,  I  must  tell  you  that  when 
Cardot  asked  who  put  me  in  the  way  of  this  affair  he 
said  I  owed  him  a  present  of  at  least  ten  thousand 
francs.     The  fact  is,  I  owe  it  all  to  him." 

"But  he  is  the  son  of  the  house,"  responded  Brigitte. 

"Poor  lad !  I  '11  do  him  the  justice  to  say  that  he  asks 
for  nothing."     . 

"Well,  dear,  good  friend,"  said  la  Peyrade,  coming  in 
about  three  o'clock,  "here  you  are,  richissime!  " 


182  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

**  And  through  you,  Theodose." 

"And  you,  little  aunt,  have  you  come  to  life  again? 
Ah!  you  were  not  half  as  frightened  as  I  was.  I  put 
your  interests  before  my  own;  I  haven't  breathed  freely 
till  this  morning  at  eleven  o'clock;  and  yet  I  am  sure 
now  of  having  two  mortal  enemies  at  my  heels  in  the 
two  men  I  have  tricked  for  your  sake.  As  I  walked 
home,  just  now,  I  asked  myself  what  could  be  your 
influence  over  me  to  make  me  commit  such  a  crime,  and 
wrhether  the  happiness  of  belonging  to  your  family  and 
becoming  your  son  could  ever  efface  the  stain  I  have  put 
upon  my  conscience." 

"Bah!  you  can  confess  it,"  said  Thuillier,  the  free- 
thinker. 

"And  now,"  said  Theodose  to  Brigitte,  "you  can  pay, 
in  all  security,  the  cost  of  the  house,  —  eighty  thousand 
francs,  and  thirty  thousand  to  Grindot;  in  all,  with 
what  you  have  paid  in  costs,  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand;  and  this  last  twenty  thousand  added  make  one 
hundred  and  forty  thousand.  If  you  let  the  house  out- 
right to  a  single  tenant  ask  him  for  the  last  year's  rent 
in  advance,  and  reserve  for  my  wife  and  me  the  whole 
of  the  first  floor  above  the  entresol.  Make  those  condi- 
tions and  you  '11  still  get  your  forty  thousand  francs 
a  year.  If  you  should  want  to  leave  this  quarter  so  as 
to  be  nearer  the  Chamber,  you  can  always  take  up  your 
abode  with  us  on  that  vast  first  floor,  which  has  stables 
and  coach-house  belonging  to  it;  in  fact,  everything  that 
is  needful  for  a  splendid  life.  And  now,  Thuillier,  I  am 
going  to  get  the  cross  of  the  Legion  of  honor  for  you." 

Hearing  this  last  promise,  Brigitte  cried  out  in  her 
enthusiasm :  — 

"Faith!  my  dear  boy,  you've  done  our  business  so 
well  that  I  '11  leave  you  to  manage  that  of  letting  the 
house." 

"Don't  abdicate,  dear  aunt,"  replied  Theodose.     "God 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie,  183 

keep  me  from  ever  taking  a  step  without  you!  You  are 
the  good  genius  of  this  family;  I  think  only  of  the  day 
when  Thuillier  will  take  his  seat  in  the  Chamber.  If 
you  let  the  house  you  will  come  into  possession  of  your 
forty  thousand  francs  for  the  last  year  of  the  lease  in 
two  months  from  now;  and  that  will  not  prevent  Thuillier 
from  drawing  his  quarterly  ten  thousand  of  the  rental." 

After  casting  this  hope  into  the  mind  of  the  old  maid, 
who  was  jubilant,  Theodose  drew  Thuillier  into  the  gar- 
den and  said  to  him,  without  beating  round  the  bush :  — 

"Dear,  good  friend,  find  means  to  get  ten  thousand 
francs  from  your  sister,  and  be  sure  not  to  let  her  sus- 
pect that  you  pay  them  to  me;  tell  her  that  sum  is 
required  in  the  government  offices  to  facilitate  your 
appointment  as  chevalier  of  the  Legion  of  honor;  tell 
her,  too,  that  you  know  the  persons  among  whom  that 
sum  should  be  distributed." 

"That's  a  good  idea,"  said  Thuillier;  "besides,  I'll 
pay  it  back  to  her  when  I  get  my  rents." 

"Have  the  money  ready  this  evening,  dear  friend. 
Now  I  am  going  out  on  business  about  your  cross;  to- 
morrow we  shall  know  something  definitely  about  it." 

"What  a  man  you  are!  "  cried  Thuillier. 

"The  ministry  of  the  1st  of  March  is  going  to  fall, 
and  we  must  get  it  out  of  them  beforehand,"  said 
Theodose,  shrewdly. 

He  now  hurried  to  Madame  Colleville,  crying  out  as 
he  entered  her  room :  — 

"I've  conquered!  We  shall  have  a  piece  of  landed 
property  for  Celeste  worth  a  million,  a  life-interest  in 
which  will  be  given  to  her  by  her  marriage-contract;  but 
keep  the  secret,  or  your  daughter  will  be  hunted  down 
by  peers  of  France.  Besides,  this  settlement  will  only 
be  made  in  my  favor.  Now  dress  yourself,  and  let  us 
go  and  call  on  Madame  du  Bruel ;  she  can  get  the  cross 
for  Thuillier.     While  you  are  getting  under  arms  I  '11  do 


184  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

a  little  courting  to  Celeste;  you  and  I  can  talk  as  we 
drive  along. 

La  Peyrade  had  seen,  as  he  passed  the  door  of  the 
salon,  Celeste  and  Felix  Phellion  in  close  conversation. 
Flavie  had  such  confidence  in  her  daughter  that  she  did 
not  fear  to  leave  them  together.  Now  that  the  great 
success  of  the  morning  was  secured,  Theodose  felt  the 
necessity  of  beginning  his  courtship  of  Celeste.  It  was 
high  time,  he  thought,  to  bring  about  a  quarrel  between 
the  lovers.  He  did  not,  therefore,  hesitate  to  apply  his 
ear  to  the  door  of  the  salon  before  entering  it,  in  order 
to  discover  what  letters  of  the  alphabet  of  love  they  were 
spelling;  he  was  even  invited  to  commit  this  domestic 
treachery  by  sounds  from  within,  which  seemed  to  say 
that  they  were  disputing.  Love,  according  to  one  of  our 
poets,  is  a  privilege  which  two  persons  mutually  take 
advantage  of  to  cause  each  other,  reciprocally,  a  great 
deal  of  sorrow  about  nothing  at  all. 

When  Celeste  knew  that  Felix  was  elected  by  her  heart 
to  be  the  companion  of  her  life,  she  felt  a  desire,  not  so 
much  to  study  him  as  to  unite  herself  closely  with  him 
by  that  communion  of  the  soul  which  is  the  basis  of  all 
affections,  and  leads,  in  youthful  minds,  to  involuntary 
examination.  The  dispute  to  which  Theodose  was  now 
to  listen  took  its  rise  in  a  disagreement  which  had  sprung 
up  within  the  last  few  days  between  the  mathematician 
and  Celeste.  The  young  girl's  piety  was  real ;  she  belonged 
to  the  flock  of  the  truly  faithful,  and  to  her,  Catholicism, 
tempered  by  that  mysticism  which  attracts  young  souls, 
was  an  inward  poem,  a  life  within  her  life.  From  this 
point  young  girls  are  apt  to  develop  into  either  extremely 
light-minded  women  or  saints.  But,  during  this  beauti- 
ful period  of  their  youth  they  have  in  their  heart,  in  their 
ideas,  a  sort  of  absolutism:  before  their  eyes  is  the 
image  of  perfection,  and  all  must  be  celestial,  angelic  or 
divine  to  satisfy  them.     Outside  of  their  ideal,  nothing 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  185 

of  good  can  exist;  all  is  stained  and  soiled.  This  idea 
causes  the  rejection  of  many  a  diamond  with  a  flaw  by 
girls  who,  as  women,  fall  in  love  with  paste. 

Now,  Celeste  had  seen  in  Felix,  not  irreligion,  but 
indifference  to  matters  of  religion.  Like  most  geometri- 
cians, chemists,  mathematicians,  and  great  naturalists, 
he  had  subjected  religion  to  reason;  he  recognized  a 
problem  in  it  as  insoluble  as  the  squaring  of  the  circle. 
Deist  in  petto,  he  lived  in  the  religion  of  most  French- 
men, not  attaching  more  importance  to  it  than  he  did  to 
the  new  laws  promulgated  in  July.  It  was  necessary  to 
have  a  God  in  heaven,  just  as  they  set  up  a  bust  of  the 
king  at  the  mayor's  office.  Felix  Phellion,  a  worthy  son 
of  his  father,  had  never  drawn  the  slightest  veil  over  his 
opinions  or  his  conscience;  he  allowed  Celeste  to  read 
into  them  with  the  candor  and  the  inattention  of  a 
student  of  problems.  The  young  girl,  on  her  side,  pro- 
fessed a  horror  for  atheism,  and  her  conscience  assured 
her  that  a  deist  was  cousin-german  to  an  atheist. 

"Have  you  thought,  Felix,  of  doing  what  you  promised 
me?"  asked  Celeste,  as  soon  as  Madame  Colleville  had 
left  them  alone. 

"No,  my  dear  Celeste,"  replied  Felix. 

"Oh!  to  have  broken  his  word!  "  she  cried,  softly. 

"But  to  have  kept  it  would  have  been  a  profanation," 
said  Felix.  "I  love  you  so  deeply,  with  a  tenderness  so 
little  proof  against  your  wishes,  that  I  promised  a  thing 
contrary  to  my  conscience.  Conscience,  Celeste,  is  our 
treasure,  our  strength,  our  mainstay.  How  can  you  ask 
me  to  go  into  a  church  and  kneel  at  the  feet  of  a  priest, 
in  whom  I  can  see  only  a  man  ?  You  would  despise  me  if 
I  obeyed  you." 

"And  so,  my  dear  Felix,  you  refuse  to  go  to  church," 
said  Celeste,  casting  a  tearful  glance  at  the  man  she 
loved.  "If  I  were  your  wife  you  would  let  me  go  alone? 
You  do  not  love  me  as  I  love  you!  for,  alas!  I  have  a 


186  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

feeling  in  my  heart  for  an  atheist  contrary  to  that  which 
God  commands." 

"An  atheist!  "  cried  Felix.  "Oh,  no!  Listen  to  me, 
Celeste.  There  is  certainly  a  God;  I  believe  in  that; 
but  I  have  higher  ideas  of  him  than  those  of  your  priests ; 
I  do  not  wish  to  bring  him  down  to  my  level ;  I  want  to 
rise  to  him.  I  listen  to  the  voice  he  has  put  within  me, 
—  a  voice  which  honest  men  call  conscience,  and  I  strive 
not  to  darken  that  divine  ray  as  it  comes  to  me.  For 
instance,  I  will  never  harm  others;  I  will  do  nothing 
against  the  commandments  of  universal  morality,  which 
was  that  of  Confucius,  Moses,  Pythagoras,  Socrates,  as 
well  as  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  will  stand  in  the  presence  of 
God;  my  actions  shall  be  my  prayers;  I  will  never  be 
false  in  word  or  deed ;  never  will  I  do  a  base  or  shameful 
thing.  Those  are  the  precepts  I  have  learned  from  my 
virtuous  father,  and  which  I  desire  to  bequeath  to  my 
children.  All  the  good  that  I  can  do  I  shall  try  to  accom- 
plish, even  if  I  have  to  suffer  for  it.  What  can  you  ask 
more  of  a  man  than  that?  " 

This  profession  of  the  Phellion  faith  caused  Celeste 
to  sadly  shake   her  head. 

"Read  attentively,"  she  replied,  "  'The  Imitation  of 
Jesus  Christ.'  Strive  to  convert  yourself  to  the  holy 
Catholic,  apostolic  and  Roman  church,  and  you  will  see 
how  empty  your  words  are.  Hear  me,  Felix ;  marriage 
is  not,  the  Church  says,  the  affair  of  a  day,  the  mere 
satisfaction  of  our  own  desires;  it  is  made  for  eternity. 
What!  shall  we  be  united  day  and  night,  shall  we  form 
one  flesh,  one  word,  and  yet  have  two  languages,  two 
faiths  in  our  heart,  and  a  cause  of  perpetual  dissension? 
Would  you  condemn  me  to  weep  tears  over  the  state  of 
your  soul,  —  tears  that  I  must  ever  conceal  from  you  ? 
Could  I  address  myself  in  peace  to  God  when  I  see  his 
arm  stretched  out  in  wrath  against  you?  Must  my 
children  inherit  the  blood  of  a  deist  and  his  convictions? 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  187 

Oh!  God,  what  misery  for  a  wife!  No,  no,  these  ideas 
are  intolerable.  Felix!  be  of  my  faith,  for  I  cannot 
share  yours.  Do  not  put  a  gulf  between  us.  If  you 
loved  me,  you  would  already  have  read  '  The  Imitation 
of  Jesus  Christ.'" 

The  Phellion  class,  sons  of  the  "Constitutionnel,"  dis- 
like the  priestly  mind,  ^elix  had  the  imprudence  to 
reply  to  this  sort  of  prayer  from  the  depths  of  an  ardent 
heart :  — 

"You  are  repeating,  Celeste,  the  lessons  your  con- 
fessor teaches  you;  nothing,  believe  me,  is  more  fatal 
to  happiness  than  the  interference  of  priests  in  a  home." 

"Oh!"  cried  Celeste,  wounded  to  the  quick,  for  love 
had  alone  inspired  her,  "you  do  not  love!  The  voice 
of  my  heart  is  not  in  unison  with  yours!  You  have 
not  understood  me,  because  you  have  not  listened 
to  me;  but  I  forgive  you,  for  you  know  not  what  you 
say." 

She  wrapped  herself  in  solemn  silence,  and  Felix  went 
to  the  window  and  drummed  upon  the  panes,  —  music 
familiar  to  those  who  have  indulged  in  poignant  reflec- 
tions. Felix  was,  in  fact,  presenting  the  following  deli- 
cate and  curious  questions  to  the  Phellion  conscience. 

"Celeste  is  a  rich  heiress,  and,  in  yielding  against  the 
voice  of  natural  religion,  to  her  ideas,  I  should  have  in 
view  the  making  of  what  is  certainly  an  advantageous 
marriage,  —  an  infamous  act.  I  ought  not,  as  father  of 
a  family,  to  allow  the  priesthood  to  have  an  influence  in 
my  home.  If  I  yield  to-day,  I  do  a  weak  act,  which  will 
be  followed  by  many  others  equally  pernicious  to  the 
authority  of  a  husband  and  father.  All  this  is  unworthy 
of  a  philosopher." 

Then  he  returned  to  hi3  beloved. 

"Celeste,  I  entreat  you  on  my  knees,"  he  said,  "not 
to  mingle  that  which  the  law,  in  its  wisdom,  has  sepa- 
rated.    We  live  in  two  worlds,  —  society  and  heaven. 


188  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Each  has  its  own  way  of  salvation;  but  as  to  society, 
is  it  not  obeying  God  to  obey  the  laws?  Christ  said: 
1  Render  unto  Caesar  that  which  is  Cajsar's.'  Caesar  is 
the  body  politic.     Dear,  let  us  forget  our  little  quarrel." 

"Little  quarrel!  "  cried  the  young  enthusiast;  "I  want 
you  to  have  my  whole  heart  as  I  want  to  have  the  whole 
of  yours;  and  you  make  it  into  two  parts!  Is  not  that 
an  evil?     You  forget  that  marriage  is  a  sacrament." 

"Your  priesthood  have  turned  your  head!  "  exclaimed 
the  mathematician,  impatiently. 

"Monsieur  Phellion,"  said  Celeste,  interrupting  him 
hastily,  "enough  of  this!" 

It  was  at  this  point  of  the  quarrel  that  Theodose  con- 
sidered it  judicious  to  enter  the  room.  He  found  Celeste 
pale,  and  the  young  professor  as  anxious  as  a  lover 
should  be  who  has  just  irritated  his  mistress. 

"I  heard  the  word  enough;  then  something  is  too 
much?"  he  said,  inquiringly,  looking  in  turn  from 
Celeste  to  Felix. 

"We  were  talking  religion,"  replied  Felix,  "and  I  was 
saying  to  mademoiselle  how  dangerous  ecclesiastical 
influence  is  in  the  bosom  of  families." 

"That  was  not  the  point,  monsieur,"  said  Celeste, 
sharply;  "it  was  to  know  if  husband  and  wife  could  be 
of  one  heart  when  the  one  is  an  atheist  and  the  other 
Catholic." 

"Can  there  be  such  beings  as  atheists?"  cried  Theo- 
dose, with  all  the  signs  of  extreme  wonderment.  "Could 
a  true  Catholic  marry  a  Protestant?  There  is  no  safety 
possible  for  a  married  pair  unless  they  have  perfect  con- 
formity in  the  matter  of  religious  opinions.  I,  who  come 
from  the  Comtat,  of  a  family  which  counts  a  pope  among 
its  ancestors  —  for  our  arms  are :  gules,  a  key  argent, 
with  supporters,  a  monk  holding  a  church,  and  a  pilgrim 
with  a  staff,  or,  and  the  motto,  I  open,  I  shut —  I  am,  of 
course,  intensely  dogmatic  on  such  points.     But  in  these 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  189 

days,  thanks  to  our  modern  system  of  education,  it  does 
not  seem  to  me  strange  that  religion  should  be  called  in 
question.  I  myself  would  never  marry  a  Protestant, 
had  she  millions,  even  if  I  loved  her  distractedly.  Faith 
is  a  thing  that  cannot  be  tampered  with.  Una  fides, 
unus  Dominus,  that  is  my  device  in  life." 

"You  hear  that!  "  cried  Celeste,  triumphantly,  looking 
at  Felix  Phellion. 

"I  am  not  openly  devout,"  continued  la  Peyrade.  "I 
go  to  mass  at  six  every  morning,  that  I  may  not  be 
observed;  I  fast  on  Fridays;  I  am,  in  short,  a  son  of 
the  Church,  and  I  would  not  undertake  any  serious  enter- 
prise without  prayer,  after  the  ancient  fashion  of  our 
ancestors;  but  no  one  is  made  to  notice  my  religion.  A 
singular  thing  happened  in  our  family  during  the  Revo- 
lution of  1789,  which  attached  us  more  closely  than  ever 
to  our  holy  mother  the  Church.  A  poor  young  lady  of 
the  elder  branch  of  the  Peyrades,  who  owned  the  little 
estate  of  la  Peyrade,  —  for  we  ourselves  are  Peyrades  of 
Canquoelle,  but  the  two  branches  inherit  from  one 
another,  —  well,  this  young  lady  married,  six  years  before 
the  Revolution,  a  barrister  who,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
times,  was  Voltairean,  that  is  to  say,  an  unbeliever,  or, 
if  you  choose,  a  deist.  He  took  up  all  the  revolutionary 
ideas,  and  practised  the  charming  rites  that  you  know  of 
in  the  worship  of  the  goddess  Reason.  He  came  into 
our  part  of  the  country  imbued  with  the  ideas  of  the 
Convention,  and  fanatical  about  them.  His  wife  was 
very  handsome;  he  compelled  her  to  play  the  part  of 
Liberty;  and  the  poor  unfortunate  creature  went  mad. 
She  died  insane!  Well,  as  things  are  going  now  it  looks 
as  if  we  might  have  another  1793." 

This  history,  invented  on  the  spot,  made  such  an 
impression  on. Celeste's  fresh  and  youthful  imagination 
that  she  rose,  bowed  to  the  young  men  and  hastened  to 
her  chamber. 


190  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Ah!  monsieur,  why  did  you  tell  her  that?"  cried 
Felix,  struck  to  the  heart  by  the  cold  look  the  young 
girl,  affecting  profound  indifference,  cast  upon  him. 
She  fancied  herself  transformed  into  a  goddess  of 
Reason. 

"Why  not?  What  were  you  talking  about?"  asked 
Theodose. 

"About  my  indifference  to  religion." 

"The  great  sore  of  this  century,"  replied  Theodose, 
gravely. 

"I  am  ready,"  said  Madame  Colleville,  appearing  in 
a  toilet  of  much  taste.  "But  what  is  the  matter  with  my 
poor  daughter?     She  is  crying!  " 

"Crying!  madame,"  exclaimed  Felix;  "please  tell  her 
that  I  will  study  '  The  Imitation  of  Christ*  at  once." 

Felix  left  the  house  with  Theodose  and  Flavie,  whose 
arm  the  barrister  pressed  to  let  her  know  he  would  ex- 
plain in  the  carriage  the  apparent  dementia  of  the  young 
professor. 

An  hour  later,  Madame  Colleville  and  Celeste,  Colle- 
ville and  Theodose  were  entering  the  Thuilliers'  apart- 
ment to  dine  there.  Theodose  and  Flavie  took  Thuillier 
into  the  garden,  where  the  former  said  to  him :  — 

"Dear,  good  friend!  you  will  have  the  cross  within  a 
week.  Our  charming  friend  here  will  tell  you  about  our 
visit  to  the  Comtesse  du  Bruel." 

And  Theodose  left  Thuillier,  having  caught  sight  of 
Desroches  in  the  act  of  being  brought  by  Mademoiselle 
Thuillier  into  the  garden ;  he  went,  driven  by  a  terrible 
and  glacial  presentiment,  to  meet  him. 

"My  good  friend,"  said  Desroches  in  his  ear,  "I  have 
come  to  see  if  you  can  procure  at  once  twenty-five  thou- 
sand francs  plus  two  thousand  six  hundred  and  eighty 
for  costs." 

"Are  you  acting  for  Cerizet?  "  asked  the  barrister. 

"Cerizet   has   put   all   the  papers   into  the  hands  of 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  191 

Louchard,  and  you  know  what  you  have  to  expect  if 
arrested.  Is  Cerizet  wrong  in  thinking  you  have  twenty- 
five  thousand  francs  in  your  desk?  He  says  you  offered 
them  to  him  and  he  thinks  it  only  natural  not  to  leave 
them  in  your  hands." 

"Thank  you  for  taking  the  step,  my  good  friend," 
replied  Theodose.     "I  have  been  expecting  this  attack." 

"Between  ourselves,"  replied  Desroches,  "you  have 
made  an  utter  fool  of  him,  and  he  is  furious.  The 
scamp  will  stop  at  nothing  to  get  his  revenge  upon  you 
—  for  he  '11  lose  everything  if  he  forces  you  to  fling  your 
barrister's  gown,  as  they  say,  to  the  nettles  and  go  to 
prison." 

"I?"  said  Theodose.  "I'm  going  to  pay  him.  But 
even  so,  there  will  still  be  five  notes  of  mine  in  his 
hands,  for  five  thousand  francs  each ;  what  does  he  mean 
to  do  with  them  ?  " 

"Oh!  after  the  affair  of  this  morning,  I  can't  tell  you; 
my  client  is  a  crafty,  mangy  cur,  and  he  is  sure  to  have 
his  little  plans." 

"Look  here,  Desroches,"  said  Theodose,  taking  the 
hard,  unyielding  attorney  round  the  waist,  "those  papers 
are  in  your  hands,  are  not  they  ?  " 

"Will  you  pay  them?  " 

"Yes,  in  three  hours." 

"Very  good,  then.  Be  at  my  office  at  nine  o'clock; 
I  '11  receive  the  money  and  give  you  your  notes ;  but,  at 
half-past  nine  o'clock,  they  will  be  in  the  sheriff's 
hands." 

"To-night,  then,  at  nine  o'clock,"  said  Theodose. 

"Nine  o'clock,"  repeated  Desroches,  whose  glance 
had  taken  in  the  whole  family,  then  assembled  in  the 
garden. 

Celeste,  with  red  eyes,  was  talking  to  her  godmother; 
Colleville  and  Brigitte,  Flavie  and  Thuillier  were  on  the 
steps  of  the  broad  portico  leading  to  the  entrance-hall. 


192  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Desroches  remarked  to  Theodose,  who  followed  him  to 
the  door :  — 

"You  can  pay  off  those  notes." 

At  a  single  glance  the  shrewd  attorney  had  compre- 
hended the  whole  scheme  of  the  barrister. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  193 


XIV. 

ONE    OP   CERIZET'S    FEMALE    CLIENTS. 

The  next  morning,  at  daybreak,  Theodose  went  to  the 
office  of  the  banker  of  the  poor,  to  see  the  effect  produced 
upon  his  enemy  by  the  punctual  payment  of  the  night 
before,  and  to  make  another  effort  to  get  rid  of  his 
hornet. 

He  found  Cerizet  standing  up,  in  conference  with  a 
woman,  and  he  received  an  imperative  sign  to  keep  at 
a  distance  and  not  to  interrupt  the  interview.  The 
barrister  was  therefore  reduced  to  conjectures  as  to  the 
importance  of  this  woman,  an  importance  revealed  by 
the  eager  look  on  the  face  of  the  lender  "by  the  little 
week."'  Theodose  had  a  presentiment,  though  a  very 
vague  one,  that  the  upshot  of  this  conference  would  have 
some  influence  on  Cerizet's  own  arrangements,  for  he 
suddenly  beheld  on  that  crafty  countenance  the  change 
produced  by  a  dawning  hope. 

"But,  my  dear  mamma  Cardinal  —  " 

"Yes,  my  good  monsieur  —  " 

"What  is  it  you  want  —  ?  " 

"  It  must  be  decided  —  " 

These  beginnings,  or  these  ends  of  sentences  were  the 
only  gleams  of  light  that  the  animated  conversation, 
carried  on  in  the  lowest  tones  with  lip  to  ear  and  ear  to 
lip,  conveyed  to  the  motionless  witness,  whose  attention 
was  fixed  on  Madame  Cardinal. 

Madame  Cardinal  was  one  of  Cerizet' s  earliest  clients; 
she  peddled  fish.  If  Parisians  know  these  creations 
peculiar  to  their  soil,  foreigners  have  no  suspicion  of 

13 


194  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

their  existence;  and  Mere  Cardinal  —  technologically 
speaking,  of  course  —  deserved  all  the  interest  she  excited 
in  Theodose.  So  many  women  of  her  species  may  be  met 
with  in  the  streets  that  the  passers-by  give  them  no  more 
attention  than  they  give  to  the  three  thousand  pictures 
of  the  Salon.  But  as  she  stood  in  Cerizet's  office  the 
Cardinal  had  all  the  value  of  an  isolated  masterpiece; 
she  was  a  complete  and  perfect  type  of  her  species. 

The  woman  was  mounted  on  muddy  sabots;  but  her 
feet,  carefully  wrapped  in  gaiters,  were  still  further  pro- 
tected by  stout  and  thick-ribbed  stockings.  Her  cotton 
gown,  adorned  with  a  flounce  of  mud,  bore  the  imprint 
of  the  strap  which  supported  the  fish-basket.  Her  prin- 
cipal garment  was  a  shawl  of  what  was  called  "  rabbit' s- 
hair  cashmere,"  the  two  ends  of  which  were  knotted 
behind,  above  her  bustle  —  for  we  must  needs  employ  a 
fashionable  word  to  express  the  effect  produced  by  the 
transversal  pressure  of  the  basket  upon  her  petticoats, 
which  projected  below  it,  in  shape  like  a  cabbage.  A 
printed  cotton  neckerchief,  of  the  coarsest  description, 
gave  to  view  a  red  neck,  ribbed  and  lined  like  the  sur- 
face of  a  pond  where  people  have  skated.  Her  head 
was  covered  with  a  yellow  silk  foulard,  twined  in  a  man- 
ner that  was  rather  picturesque.  Short  and  stout,  and 
ruddy  of  skin,  Mere  Cardinal  probably  drank  her  little 
drop  of  brandy  in  the  morning.  She  had  once  been 
handsome.  The  Halle  had  formerly  reproached  her,  in 
the  boldness  of  its  figurative  speech,  for  doing  "a  double 
day's-work  in  the  twenty-four."  Her  voice,  in  order  to 
reduce  itself  to  the  diapason  of  ordinary  conversation, 
was  obliged  to  stifle  its  sound  as  other  voices  do  in  a 
sick-room ;  but  at  such  times  it  came  thick  and  muffled, 
from  a  throat  accustomed  to  send  to  the  farthest  recesses 
of  the  highest  garret  the  names  of  the  fish  in  their  season. 
Her  nose,  a  la  Roxelane,  her  well-cut  lips,  her  blue  eyes, 
and  all  that  formerly  made   up  her   beauty,  was   now 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  195 

buried  in  folds  of  vigorous  flesh  which  told  of  the  habits 
and  occupations  of  an  outdoor  life.  The  stomach  and 
bosom  were  distinguished  for  an  amplitude  worthy  of 
Rubens. 

"Do  you  want  to  make  me  lie  in  the  straw?  "  she  said 
to  Cerizet.  What  do  I  care  for  the  Toupilliers?  Ain't 
I  a  Toupillier  myself?  What  do  you  want  to  do  with 
them,  those  Toupilliers?" 

This  savage  outburst  was  hastily  repressed  by  Cerizet, 
who  uttered  a  prolonged  "Hush-sh!"  such  as  all  con- 
spirators obey.  * 

"Well,  go  and  find  out  all  yon  can  about  it,  and  come 
back  to  me,"  said  Ce'rizet,  pushing  the  woman  toward 
the  door,  and  whispering,  as  he  did  so,  a  few  words  in 
her  ear. 

"Well,  my  dear  friend,"  said  Theodose  to  Cerizet, 
"you  have  got  your  money?  " 

"Yes,"  returned  Cerizet,  "we  have  measured  our  claws; 
they  are  the  same  length,  the  same  strength,  and  the 
same  sharpness.     What  next?" 

"Am  I  to  tell  Dutocq  that  you  received,  last  night, 
twenty-five  thousand  francs  ?  " 

"Oh!  my  dear  friend,  not  a  word,  if  you  love  me!" 
cried  Cerizet. 

"Listen,"  said  Theodose.  "I  must  know,  once  for 
all,  what  you  want.  I  am  positively  determined  not  to 
remain  twenty-four  hours  longer  on  the  gridiron  where 
you  have  got  me.  Cheat  Dutocq  if  you  will;  I  am 
utterly  indifferent  to  that;  but  I  intend  that  you  and  I 
shall  come  to  an  understanding.  It  is  a  fortune  that  I 
have  paid  you,  twenty-five  thousand  francs,  and  you 
must  have  earned  ten  thousand  more  in  your  business ; 
it  is  enough  to  make  yourself  an  honest  man.  Cerizet, 
if  you  will  leave  me  in  peace,  if  you  won't  prevent  my 
marriage  with  Mademoiselle  Colleville,  I  shall  certainly 
be  king's  attorney-general,  or  something  of  that  kind  in 


196  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Paris.     You  can't  do  better  than  make  sure  of  an  influ- 
ence in  that  sphere." 

"Here  are  my  conditions;  and  they  won't  allow  of 
discussion ;  3'ou  can  take  them  or  leave  them.  You  will 
obtain  for  me  the  lease  of  Thuillier's  new  house  for 
eighteen  years,  and  I  '11  hand  you  back  one  of  your  five 
notes  cancelled,  and  you  shall  not  find  me  any  longer  in 
your  way.  But  you  will  have  to  settle  with  Dutocq  for 
the  remaining  four  notes.  You  got  the  better  of  me, 
and  I  know  Dutocq  has  n't  the  force  to  stand  against 

you." 

"I  '11  agree  to  that,  provided  you  '11  pay  a  rent  of 
forty-eight  thousand  francs  for  the  house,  the  last  year 
in  advance,  and  begin  the  lease  in  October." 

"Yes;  but  I  shall  not  give  for  the  last  year's  rent 
more  than  forty-three  thousand  francs;  your  note  will 
pay  the  remainder.  I  have  seen  the  house,  and  examined 
it.     It  suits  me  very  well." 

"One  last  condition,"  said  Theodose;  "you'll  help 
me  against  Dutocq?" 

"No,"  said  Cerizet,  "you'll  cook  him  brown  yourself; 
he  does  n't  need  any  basting  from  me;  he  '11  give  out  his 
gravy  fast  enough.  But  you  ought  to  be  reasonable. 
The  poor  fellow  can't  pay  off  the  last  fifteen  thousand 
francs  due  on  his  practice,  and  you  should  reflect  that 
fifteen  thousand  francs  would  certainly  buy  back  your 
notes." 

"Well;  give  me  two  weeks  to  get  your  lease  —  " 

"No,  not  a  day  later  than  Monday  next!  Tuesday 
your  notes  will  be  in  Louchard's  hands;  unless  you  pay 
them  Monday,  or  Thuillier  signs  the  lease.  " 

"Well,  Monday,  so  be  it!"  said  Theodose;  "are  we 
friends  ?  " 

"We  shall  be  Monday,"  responded  Cerizet. 

"Well,  then,  Monday  you  '11  pay  for  my  dinner," 
said  Theodose,  laughing. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  197 

"Yes,  at  the  Rocher  de  Cancale,  if  I  have  the  lease. 
Dutocq  shall  be  there  —  we'll  all  be  there  —  ah!  it  is 
long  since  I've  had  a  good  laugh." 

Theodose  and  Cerizet  shook  hands,  saying,  recip- 
rocally :  — 

"We  '11  meet  soon." 

Cerizet  had  not  calmed  down  so  suddenly  without 
reasons.  In  the  first  place,  as  Desroches  once  said, 
"Bile  does  not  facilitate  business,"  and  the  usurer  had 
too  well  seen  the  justice  of  that  remark  not  to  coolly 
resolve  to  get  something  out  of  his  position,  and  to 
squeeze  the  jugular  vein  of  the  crafty  Provencal  until  he 
strangled  him. 

"It  is  a  fair  revenge,"  Desroches  said  to  him;  "mind 
you  extract  its  quintessence.     You  hold  that  fellow." 

For  ten  years  past  Cerizet  had  seen  men  growing  rich 
by  practising  the  trade  of  principal  tenant.  The  prin- 
cipal tenant  is,  in  Paris,  to  the  owners  of  houses  what 
farmers  are  to  country  landlords.  All  Paris  has  seen 
one  of  its  great  tailors,  building  at  his  own  cost,  on  the 
famous  site  of  Frascati,  one  of  the  most  sumptuous  of 
houses,  and  paying,  as  principal  tenant,  fifty  thousand 
francs  a  year  for  the  ground  rent  of  the  house,  which, 
at  the  end  of  nineteen  years'  lease,  was  to  become  the 
property  of  the  owner  of  the  land.  In  spite  of  the  costs 
of  construction,  which  were  something  like  seven  hun- 
dred thousand  francs,  the  profits  of  those  nineteen  years 
proved,  in  the  end,  very  large. 

Cerizet,  always  on  the  watch  for  business,  had  examined 
the  chances  for  gain  offered  by  the  situation  of  the  house 
which  Thuillier  had  stolen,  —  as  he  said  to  Desroches,  — 
and  he  had  seen  the  possibility  of  letting  it  for  sixty 
thousand  at  the  end  of  six  years.  There  were  four  shops, 
two  on  each  side,  for  it  stood  on  a  boulevard  corner. 
Cerizet  expected,  therefore,  to  get  a  clear  ten  thousand 
a  year  for  a  dozen  years,  allowing  for  eventualities  and 


198  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

sundries  attendant  on  renewal  of  leases.  He  therefore 
proposed  to  himself  to  sell  his  money-lending  business 
to  the  widow  Poiret  and  Cadenet  for  ten  thousand  francs  •, 
he  already  possessed  thirty  thousand;  and  the  two  to- 
gether would  enable  him  to  pay  the  last  year's  rent  in 
advance,  which  house-owners  in  Paris  usually  demand 
as  guarantee  from  a  principal  tenant  on  a-long  lease. 
Cerizet  had  spent  a  happy  night;  he  fell  asleep  in  a 
glorious  dream ;  he  saw  himself  in  a  fair  way  to  do  an 
honest  business,  and  to  become  a  bourgeois  like  Thuillier, 
like  Minard,  and  so  many  others. 

But  he  had  a  waking  of  which  he  did  not  dream.  He 
found  Fortune  standing  before  him,  and  emptying  her 
gilded  horns  of  plenty  at  his  feet  in  the  person  of  Madame 
Cardinal.  He  had  always  had  a  liking  for  the  woman, 
and  had  promised  her  for  a  year  past  the  necessary  sum 
to  buy  a  donkey  smd  a  little  cart,  so  that  she  could  carry 
on  her  business  on  a  large  scale,  and  go  from  Paris 
to  the  suburbs.  Madame  Cardinal,  widow  of  a  porter 
in  the  corn-market,  had  an  only  daughter,  whose  beauty 
Cerizet  had  heard  of  from  some  of  the  mother's  cronies. 
Olympe  Cardinal  was  about  thirteen  years  of  age  at  the 
time,  1837,  when  Cerizet  began  his  system  of  loans  in 
the  quarter;  and  with  a  view  to  an  infamous  libertinism, 
he  had  paid  great  attention  to  the  mother,  whom  he  res- 
cued from  utter  misery,  hoping  to  make  Otympe  his  mis- 
tress. But  suddenly,  in  1838,  the  girl  left  her  mother, 
and  "made  her  life,"  td  use  an  expression  by  which  the 
lower  classes  in  Paris  describe  the  abuse  of  the  most 
precious  gifts  of  nature  and  youth. 

To  look  for  a  girl  in  Paris  is  to  look  for  a  smelt  in  the 
Seine;  nothing  but  chance  can  throw  her  into  the  net. 
The  chance  came.  Mere  Cardinal,  who  to  entertain  a 
neighbor  had  taken  her  to  the  Bobino  theatre,  recognized 
in  the  leading  lady  her  own  daughter,  whom  the  first 
comedian  had  held   under  bis  control   for  three  years. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  199 

The  mother,  gratified  at  first  at  beholding  her  daughter 
in  a  fine  gown  of  gold  brocade,  her  hair  dressed  like 
that  of  a  duchess,  and  wearing  open-worked  stock- 
ings, satin  shoes,  and  receiving  the  plaudits  of  the 
audience,  ended  by  screaming  out  from  her  seat  in  the 
gallery :  — - 

"You  shall  soon  hear  of  me,  murderer  of  your  own 
mother!  I'll  know  whether  miserable  strolling-players 
have  the  right  to  come  and  debauch  young  girls  of 
sixteen!  " 

She  waited  at  the  stage-door  to  capture  her  daughter, 
but  the  first  comedian  and  the  leading  lady  had  no  doubt 
jumped  across  the  footlights  and  left  the  theatre  with  the 
audience,  instead  of  issuing  by  the  stage-door,  where 
Madame  Cardinal  and  her  crony,  Mere  Mahoudeau,  made 
an  infernal  rumpus,  which  two  municipal  guards  were 
called  upon  to  pacify.  Those  august  personages,  before 
whom  the  two  women  lowered  the  diapason  of  their 
voices,  called  the  mother's  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
girl  was  of  legitimate  theatrical  age,  and  that  instead  of 
screaming  at  the  door  after  the  director,  she  could  sum- 
mon him  before  the  justice-of-peace,  or  the  police-court, 
whichever  she  pleased. 

The  next  day  Madame  Cardinal  intended  to  consult 
Cerizet,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  he  was  a  clerk  in  the 
office  of  the  justice-of-peace;  but,  before  reaching  his 
lair  in  the  rue  des  Poules,  she  was  met  by  the  porter  of 
a  house  in  which  an  uncle  of  hers,  a  certain  Toupillier, 
was  living,  who  told  her  that  the  old  man  had  n't  prob- 
ably two  days  to  live,  being  then  in  the  last  extremity. 

"Well,  how  do  you  expect  me  to  help  it?"  replied  the 
widow  Cardinal. 

"We  count  on  you,  my  dear  Madame  Cardinal;  we 
know  you  won't  forget  the  good  advice  we  '11  give  you. 
Here  's  the  thing.  Lately,  your  poor  uncle,  not  being 
able  to  stir  round,  has  trusted  me  to  go  and  collect  the 


200  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

rents  of  his  house,  rue  Notre-Dame  de  Nazareth,  and  the 
arrears  of  his  dividends  at  the  Treasury,  which  come  to 
eighteen  hundred  francs." 

By  this  time  the  widow  Cardinal's  eyes  were  becoming 
fixed  instead  of  wandering. 

"Yes,  my  dear,"  continued  Perrache,  a  hump-b'cked 
little  concierge;  "and,  seeing  that  you  are  the  only 
person  who  ever  thinks  about  him,  and  that  you  come 
and  see  him  sometimes,  and  bring  him  fish,  perhaps  he 
may  make  a  bequest  in  your  favor.  My  wife,  who  has 
been  nursing  him  for  the  last  few  days  since  he  has  been 
so  ill,  spoke  to  him  of  you,  but  he  would  n't  have  you 
told  about  his  illness.  But  now,  don't  you  see,  it  is 
high  time  you  should  show  yourself  there.  It  is  pretty 
nigh  two  months  since  he  has  been  able  to  attend  to 
business." 

"You  may  well  think,  you  old  thief,"  replied  Madame 
Cardinal,  hurrying  at  top  speed  toward  the  rue  Honore- 
Chevalier,  where  her  uncle  lived  in  a  wretched  garret, 
"that  the  hair  would  grow  on  my  hand  before  I  could 
ever  imagine  that.  What!  my  uncle  Toupillier  rich! 
the  old  pauper  of  the  church  of  Saint-Sulpice! " 

"Ah!  "  returned  the  porter,  "but  he  fed  well.  He  went 
to  bed  every  night  with  his  best  friend,  a  big  bottle  of 
Roussillon.  My  wife  has  tasted  it,  though  he  told  us  it 
wa3  common  stuff.  The  wine-merchant  in  the  rue  des 
Canettes  supplies  it  to  him." 

"Don't  say  a  word  about  all  this,"  said  the  widow, 
when  she  parted  from  the  man  who  had  given  her  the 
information.  "I'll  take  care  and  remember  you  —  if 
anything  comes  of  it." 

Toupillier,  former  drum-major  in  the  French  Guards, 
had  been  for  the  two  years  preceding  1789  in  the  service 
of  the  Church  as  beadle  of  Saint-Sulpice.  The  Revolu- 
tion deprived  him  of  that  post,  and  he  then  dropped  down 
into  a  state  of  abject  misery.     He  was  even  obliged  to 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  201 

take  to  the  profession  of  model,  for  he  enjoyed,  as  they 
say,  a  fine  physique.  When  public  worship  was  restored, 
he  took  up  his  beadle's  staff  once  more;  but  in  1816  he 
was  dismissed,  as  much  on  account  of  his  immorality  as 
for  his  political  opinions.  Nevertheless,  he  was  allowed 
to  stay  about  the  door  of  the  church  and  distribute  the 
holy  water.  Later,  an  unfortunate  affair,  which  we  shall 
presently  mention,  made  him  lose  even  that  position; 
but,  still  finding  means  to  keep  to  the  sanctuary,  he 
obtained  permission  to  be  allowed  as  a  pauper  in  the 
porch.  At  this  period  of  life,  being  then  seventy-two 
years  of  age,  he  made  himself  ninety-six,  and  began  the 
profession  of  centenarian. 

In  all  Paris  it  was  impossible  to  find  another  such 
beard  and  head  of  hair  as  Toupillier's.  As  he  walked 
he  appeared  bent  double;  he  held  a  stick  in  his  shaking 
hand,  —  a  hand  that  was  covered  with  lichen,  like  a 
granite  rock,  and  with  the  other  he  held  out  the  classic 
hat  with  a  broad  brim,  filthy  and  battered,  into  which, 
however,  there  fell  abundant  alms.  His  legs  were 
swathed  in  rags  and  bandages,  and  his  feet  shuffled 
'along  in  miserable  overshoes  of  woven  mat-weed,  inside 
of  which  he  had  fastened  excellent  cork  soles.  He 
washed  his  face  with  certain  compounds,  which  gave  it 
an  appearance  of  forms  of  illness,  and  he  played  the 
senility  of  a  centenarian  to  the  life.  He  reckoned  him- 
self a  hundred  years  old  in  1830,  at  which  time  his 
actual  age  was  eighty ;  he  was  the  head  of  the  paupers 
of  Saint-Sulpice,  the  master  of  the  place,  and  all  those 
who  came  to  beg  under  the  arcades  of  the  church,  safe 
from  the  persecutions  of  the  police  and  beneath  the  pro- 
tection of  the  beadle  and  the  giver  of  holy  water,  were 
forced  to  pay  him  a  sort  of  tithe. 

When  a  new  heir,  a  bridegroom,  or  some  godfather 
left  the  church,  saying,  "Here,  this  is  for  all  of  you; 
don't  torment  any  of  my  party,"  Toupillier,  appointed 


202  JThe  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 

by  the  beadle  to  receive  these  alms,  pocketed  three- 
fourths,  and  distributed  only  the  remaining  quarter 
among  his  henchmen,  whose  tribute  amounted  to  a  son 
a  day.  Money  and  wine  were  his  last  two  passions; 
but  he  regulated  the  latter  and  gave  himself  up  to  the 
former,  without  neglecting  his  personal  comfort.  He 
drank  at  night  only,  after  his  dinner,  and  for  twenty  years 
he  slept  in  the  arms  of  drunkenness,  his  last  mistress. 

In  the  early  morning  he  was  at  his  post  with  all  his 
faculties.  From  then  until  his  dinner,  which  he  took  at 
Pere  Lathuile's  (made  famous  by  Charlet),  he  gnawed 
crusts  of  bread  by  way  of  nourishment;  and  he  gnawed 
them  artistically,  with  an  air  of  resignation  which  earned 
him  abundant  alms.  The  beadle  and  the  giver  of  holy 
water,  with  whom  he  may  have  had  some  private  under- 
standing, would  say  of  him:  — 

"He  is  one  of  the  worthy  poor  of  the  church;  he  used 
to  know  the  rector  Languet,  who  built  Saint-Sulpice; 
he  was  for  twenty  years  beadle  of  the  church  before 
the  Revolution,  and  he  is  now  over  a  hundred  years 
old." 

This  little  biography,  well  known  to  all  the  pious 
attendants  of  the  church,  was,  of  course,  the  best  of 
advertisements,  and  no  hat  was  so  well  lined  as  his.  He 
bought  his  house  in  1826,  and  began  to  invest  his  money 
in  the  Funds  in  1830.  From  the  value  of  the  two  invest- 
ments he  must  have  made  something  like  six  thousand 
francs  a  year,  and  probably  turned  them  over  by  usury, 
after  Cerizet's  own  fashion;  for  the  sum  he  paid  for 
the  house  was  forty  thousand  francs,  while  his  invest- 
ment in  18^0  was  forty-eight  thousand  more.  His  niece, 
deceived  by  the  old  man  as  much  as  he  deceived  the 
functionaries  and  the  pious  souls  of  the  church,  believed 
him  the  most  miserable  of  paupers,  and  when  she  had 
any  fish  that  were  spoiling  she  sometimes  took  them  to 
the  aged  beggar. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  203 

Consequently,  she  now  felt  it  her  right  to  get  what  she 
could  in  return  for  her  pity  and  her  liberality  to  an  uncle 
who  was  likely  to  have  a  crowd  of  collateral  heirs ;  she 
herself  being  the  third  and  last  Toupillier  daughter. 
She  had  four  brothers,  and  her  father,  a  porter  with  a 
hand-cart,  had  told  her,  in  her  childhood,  of  three  aunts 
and  four  uncles,  who  all  led  an  existence  of  the  baser 
sort. 

After  inspecting  the  sick  man,  she  went,  at  full  speed, 
to  consult  Cerizet,  telling  him,  in  the  first  place,  how 
she  had  found  her  daughter,  and  then  the  reasons  and 
indications  which  made  her  think  that  her  uncle 
Toupillier  was  hoarding  a  pile  of  gold  in  his  mattress. 
Mere  Cardinal  did  not  feel  herself  strong  enough  to  seize 
upon  the  property,  legally  or  illegally,  and  she  therefore 
came  to  confide  in  Cerizet  and  get  his  advice. 

So,  then,  the  banker  of  the  poor,  like  other  scavengers, 
had,  at  last,  found  diamonds  in  the  slime  in  which  he 
had  paddled  for  the  last  four  years,  being  always  on  the 
watch  for  some  such  chance,  —  a  chance,  they  say,  occa- 
sionally met  with  in  the  purlieus,  which  give  birth  to 
heiresses  in  sabots.  This  was  the  secret  of  his  unex- 
pected gentleness  to  la  Peyracle,  the  man  whose  ruin  he 
had  vowed.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  anxiety  with 
which  he  awaited  the  return  of  Madame  Cardinal,  to 
whom  this  wily  schemer  of  nefarious  plots  had  given 
means  to  verify  her  suspicions  as  to  the  existence  of  the 
hoarded  treasure,  promising  her  complete  success  if  she 
would  trust  him  to  obtain  for  her  so  rich  a  harvest.  He 
was  not  the  man  to  shrink  from  a  crime,  above  all,  when 
he  saw  that  others  could  commit  it,  while  he  obtained  the 
benefits. 

"Well,  monsieur,"  cried  the  fishwife,  entering  Cerizet's 
den  with  a  face  as  much  inflamed  by  cupidity  as  by  the 
haste  of  her  movements,  "my  uncle  sleeps  on  more  than 
a  hundred  thousand  francs  in  gold,  and  I  am  certain  that 


204  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

those  Perraches,  by  dint  of  nursing  him,  have  smelt  the 
rat. " 

"Shared  among  forty  heirs  that  won't  be  much  to 
each,"  said  Cerizet.  "Listen  to  me,  Mere  Cardinal: 
I  '11  marry  your  daughter;  give  her  your  uncle's  gold, 
and  I  '11  guarantee  to  you  a  life-interest  in  the  house  and 
the  dividends  from  the  money  in  the  Funds." 

"We  sha'n't  run  any  risk?  " 

"None,  whatever." 

"Agreed,  then,"  said  the  widow  Cardinal,  holding  out 
her  hand  to  her  future  son-in-law.  "Six  thousand  francs 
a  year;  hey!  what  a  fine  life  I  '11  have." 

"With  a  son-in-law  like  me!  "  added  Cerizet. 

"I  shall  be  a  bourgeoise  of  Paris!  " 

"Now,"  resumed  Cerizet,  after  a  pause,  "I  must  study 
the  ground.  Don't  leave  your  uncle  alone  a  minute;  tell 
the  Perraches  that  you  expect  a  doctor.  I  '11  be  the 
doctor,  and  when  I  get  there  you  must  seem  not  to  know 
me." 

"Aren't  you  sly,  you  old  rogue,"  said  Madame 
Cardinal,  with  a  punch  on  Cerizet's  stomach  by  way  of 
farewell. 

An  hour  later,  Cerizet,  dressed  in  black,  disguised  by 
a  rusty  wig  and  an  artistically  painted  physiognomy, 
arrived  at  the  house  in  the  rue  Honore-Chevalier  in  the 
regulation  cabriolet.  He  asked  the  porter  to  tell  him 
how  to  find  the  lodging  of  an  old  beggar  named 
Toupillier. 

"Is  monsieur  the  doctor  whom  Madame  Cardinal 
expects  ?  "  asked  Perrache. 

Cerizet  had  no  doubt  reflected  on  the  gravity  of  the 
affair  he  was  undertaking,  for  he  avoided  giving  an 
answer  to  that  question. 

"Is  this  the  way?"  he  said,  turning  at  random  to  one 
side  of  the  courtyard. 

"No,  monsieur,"  replied  Perrache,  who  then  took  him 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  205 

to   the  back  stairs  of   the  house,    which  led    up  to  the 
wretched  attic  occupied  by  the  pauper. 

Nothing  remained  for  the  inquisitive  porter  to  do  but 
to  question  the  driver  of  the  cabriolet;  to  which  employ- 
ment we  will  leave  him,  while  we  pursue  our  own 
inquiries  elsewhere. 


206  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


XV. 


THE   DIFFICULTIES    THAT   CROP   UP  IN   THE   EASIEST 
OF     THEFTS. 

The  house  in  which  Toupillier  lived  is  one  of  those 
which  have  lost  half  their  depth,  owing  to  the  straighten- 
ing of  the  line  of  the  street,  the  rue  Honore-Chevalier 
being  one  of  the  narrowest  in  the  Saint-Sulpice  quarter. 
The  owner,  forbidden  by  law  to  repair  it,  or  to  add  new 
storeys,  was  compelled  to  let  the  wretched  building  in 
the  condition  in  which  he  bought  it.  It  consisted  of  a 
first  storey  above  the  ground-floor,  surmounted  by  gar- 
rets, with  two  small  wings  running  back  on  either  side. 
The  courtyard  thus  formed  ended  in  a  garden  planted 
with  trees,  which  was  always  rented  to  the  occupant  of 
the  first  floor.  This  garden,  separated  by  an  iron  rail- 
ing from  the  courtyard,  would  have  allowed  a  rich  owner 
to  sell  the  front  buildings  to  the  city,  and  to  build  a 
new  house  upon  the  courtyard ;  but  the  whole  of  the  first 
floor  was  let  on  an  eighteen  years'  lease  to  a  mysterious 
personage,  about  whom  neither  the  official  policing  of 
the  concierge  nor  the  curiosity  of  the  other  tenants  could 
find  anything  to  censure. 

This  tenant,  now  seventy  years  of  age,  had  built,  in 
1829,  an  outer  stairway,  leading  from  the  right  wing  of 
the  first  floor  to  the  garden,  so  that  he  could  get  there 
without  going  through  the  courtyard.  Half  the  ground- 
floor  was  occupied  by  a  book-stitcher,  who  for  the  last 
ten  years  had  used  the  stable  and  coach-house  for  work- 
shops. A  book-binder  occupied  the  other  half.  The 
binder  and  the  stitcher  lived,  each  of  them,  in  half  the 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  207 

garret  rooms  over  the  front  building  on  the  street. 
The  garrets  above  the  rear  wings  were  occupied,  the  one 
on  the  right  by  the  mysterious  tenant,  the  one  on  the  left 
by  Toupillier,  who  paid  a  hundred  francs  a  year  for  it, 
and  reached  it  by  a  dark  staircase,  lighted  by  small 
round  windows.  The  porte-cochere  was  made  in  the  cir- 
cular form  indispensable  in  a  street  so  narrow  that  two 
carriages  cannot  pass  in  it. 

Cerizetlaid  hold  of  the  rope  which  served  as  a  baluster, 
to  climb  the  species  of  ladder  leading  to  the  room  where 
the  so-called  beggar  was  dying,  —  a  room  in  which  the 
odious  spectacle  of  pretended  pauperism  was  being 
played.  In  Paris,  everything  that  is  done  for  a  purpose 
is  thoroughly  done.  Would-be  paupers  are  as  clever  at 
mounting  their  disguise  as  shopkeepers  in  preparing 
their  show-windows,  or  sham  rich  men  in  obtaining 
credit. 

The  floor  had  never  been  swept;  the  bricks  had  disap- 
peared beneath  layers  of  dirt,  dust,  dried  mud,  and  any 
and  every  thing  thrown  down  by  Toupillier.  A  miser- 
able stove  of  cast-iron,  the  pipe  of  which  entered  a 
crumbling  chimney,  was  the  most  apparent  piece  of 
furniture  in  this  hovel.  In  an  alcove  stood  a  bed,  with 
tester  and  valance  of  green  serge,  which  the  moths  had 
transformed  into  lace.  The  window,  almost  useless,  had 
a  heavy  coating  of  grease  upon  its  panes,  which  dis- 
pensed with  the  necessity  of  curtains.  The  whitewashed 
walls  presented  to  the  eye  fuliginous  tones,  due  to  the 
wood  and  peat  burned  by  the  pauper  in  his  stove.  Qn 
the  fireplace  were  a  broken  water-pitcher,  two  bottles,  and 
a  cracked  plate.  A  worm-eaten  chest  of  drawers  con- 
tained his  linen  and  decent  clothes.  The  rest  of  the 
furniture  consisted  of  a  night-table  of  the  commonest 
description,  another  table,  worth  about  forty  sous,  and 
two  kitchen  chairs  with  the  straw  seats  almost  gone. 
The  extremely  picturesque  costume  of  the  centenarian 


208  -        The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

pauper  was  hanging  from  a  nail,  and  below  it,  on  the 
floor,  were  the  shapeless  mat-weed  coverings  that  served 
him  for  shoes,  the  whole  forming,  with  his  amorphous 
old  hat  and  knotty  stick,  a  sort  of  panoply  of  misery. 

As  he  entered,  Cerizet  gave  a  rapid  glance  at  the  old 
man,  whose  head  lay  on  a  pillow  brown  with  grease 
and  without  a  pillow-case;  his  angular  profile,  like  those 
which  engravers  of  the  last  century  were  fond  of  mak- 
ing out  of  rocks  in  the  landscapes  they  engraved,  was 
strongly  defined  in  black  against  the  green  serge  hang- 
ings of  the  tester.  Toupillier,  a  man  nearly  six  feet 
tall,  was  looking  fixedly  at  some  object  at  the  foot  of 
his  bed;  he  did  not  move  on  hearing  the  groaning  of  the 
heavy  door,  which,  being  armed  with  iron  bolts  and  a 
strong  lock,  closed  his  domicile  securely. 

"Is  he  conscious?  "  said  Cerizet,  before  whom  Madame 
Cardinal  started  back,  not  having  recognized  him  till  he 
spoke. 

"Pretty  nearly,"  she  replied. 

"Come  out  on  the  staircase,  so  that  he  does  n't  hear 
us,"  whispered  Cerizet.  "This  is  how  we  '11  manage  it," 
he  continued,  in  the  ear  of  his  future  mother-in-law: 
"He  is  weak,  but  he  isn't  so  very  loW;  we  have  fully  a 
week  before  us.  I'll  send  you  a  doctor  who '11  suit  us, 
—  you  understand?  and  later  in  the  evening  I'll  bring 
you  six  poppy-heads.  In  the  state  he  's  in,  you  see,  a 
decoction  of  poppy-heads  will  send  him  into  a  sound 
sleep.  I  '11  send  you  a  cot-bed  on  pretence  of  your 
sleeping  in  the  room  with  him.  We  '11  move  him  from 
one  bed  to  the  other,  and  when  we  've  found  the  money 
there  won't  be  any  difficulty  in  carrying  it  off.  But 
we  ought  to  know  who  the  people  are  who  live  in  this  old 
barrack.  If  Perrache  suspects,  as  you  think,  about  the 
money,  he  might  give  an  alarm,  and  so  many  tenants,  so 
many  spies,  you  know  —  " 

"Oh!  as   for   that,"   said   Madame    Cardinal,   "I've 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  209 

found  out  already  that  Monsieur  du  Portail,  the  old  man 
who  occupies  the  first  floor,  has  charge  of  an  insane 
woman ;  I  heard  their  Dutch  servant- woman,  Katte,  call- 
ing her  Lydie  this  morning.  The  only  other  servant  is 
an  old  valet  named  Bruneau ;  he  does  everything,  except 
cook." 

M  But  the  binder  and  the  stitcher  down  below,"  returned 
Cerizet,  "  they  begin  work  very  early  in  the  morning  — 
Well,  anyhow,  we  must  study  the  matter,"  he  added,  in 
the  tone  of  a  man  whose  plans  are  not  yet  decided.  "X  '11 
go  to  the  mayor's  office  of  your  arrondissement,  and  get 
Olympe's  register  of  birth,  and  put  up  the  banns.  The 
marriage  must  take  place  a  week  from  Saturday." 

"How  he  goes  it,  the  rascal!"  cried  the  admiring 
Madame  Cardinal,  pushing  her  formidable  son-in-law  by 
the  shoulder. 

As  he  went  downstairs  Cerizet  was  surprised  to  see, 
through  one  of  the  small  round  windows,  an  old  man, 
evidently  du  Portail,  walking  in  the  garden  with  a  very 
important  member  of  the  government,  Comte  Martial  de 
la  Roche-Hugon.  He  stopped  in  the  courtyard  when  he 
reached  it,  as  if  to  examine  the  old  house,  built  in  the 
reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  yellow  walls  of  which,  though 
of  freestone,  were  bent  like  the  elderly  beggar  they  con- 
tained. Then  he  looked  at  the  workshops,  and  counted 
the  workmen.  The  house  was  otherwise  as  silent  as 
a  cloister.  Being  observed  himself,  Cerizet  departed, 
thinking  over  in  his  mind  the  various  difficulties  that 
might,  arise  in  extracting  the  sum  hidden  beneath  the 
dying  man. 

"Carry  off  all  that  gold  at  night?"  he  said  to  himself; 
"why,  those  porters  will  be  on  the  watch,  and  twenty 
persons  might  see  us!  It  is  hard  work  to  carry  even 
twenty-five  thousand  francs  in  gold  on  one's  person." 

Societies  have  two  goals  of  perfection:  the  first  is  a 
state  of  civilization  in  which  morality  equally  infused 

14 


210  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

and  pervasive  does  not  admit  even  the  idea  of  crime; 
the  Jesuits  reached  that  point,  formerly  presented  by  the 
primitive  Church.  The  second  is  the  state  of  another 
civilization  in  which  the  supervision  of  citizens  over  one 
another  makes  crime  impossible.  The  end  which  modern 
society  has  placed  before  itself  is  the  latter ;  namely,  that 
in  which  a  crime  presents  such  difficulties  that  a  man 
must  abandon  all  reasoning  in  order  to  commit  it.  In 
fact,  iniquities  which  the  law  cannot  reach  are  not  left 
actually  unpunished,  for  social  judgment  is  even  more 
severe  than  that  of  courts.  If  a  man  like  Minoret,  the 
post-master  at  Nemours  [see  Ursule  Mirouet]  suppresses 
a  will  and  no  one  witnesses  the  act,  the  crime  is  traced 
home  to  him  by  the  watchfulness  of  virtue  as  surely  as 
a  robbery  is  followed  up  by  the  detective  police.  No 
wrong-doing  passes  actually  unperceived;  and  wherever 
a  lesion  in  rectitude  takes  place  the  scar  remains. 
Things  can  be  no  more  made  to  disappear  than  men ;  so 
carefully,  in  Paris  especially,  are  articles  and  objects 
ticketed  and  numbered,  houses  watched,  streets  observed, 
places  spied  upon.  To  live  at  ease,  crime  must  have  a 
sanction  like  that  of  the  Bourse;  like  that  conceded  by 
Cerizet's  clients;  who  never  complained  of  his  usury, 
and,  indeed,  would  have  been  troubled  in  mind  if  their 
flayer  were  not  in  his  den  of  a  Tuesday. 

"Well,  my  dear  monsieur, "  said  Madame  Perrache, 
the  porter's  wife,  as  he  passed  her  lodge,  "how  do  you 
find  him,  that  friend  of  God,  that  poor  man  ?  " 

"I  am  not  the  doctor,"  replied  Cerizet,  who  now 
decidedly  declined  that  role.  "I  am  Madame  Cardinal's 
business  man.  I  have  just  advised  her  to  have  a  cot-bed 
put  up,  so  as  to  nurse  her  uncle  night  and  day ;  though, 
perhaps,  she  will  have  to  get  a  regular  nurse." 

"I  can  help  her,"  said  Madame  Perrache.  "I  nurso 
women  in  childbed." 

"Well,  we'll  see  about  it," said  Cerizet;  "I'll  arrange 
all  that.     Who  is  the  tenant  on  your  first  floor?  " 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  211 

"Monsieur  du  Portail.  He  has  lodged  here  these 
thirty  years.  He  is  a  man  with  a  good  income,  mon- 
sieur; highly  respectable,  and  elderly.  You  know  people 
who  invest  in  the  Funds  live  on  their  incomes.  He  used 
to  be  in  business.  But  it  is  more  than  eleven  years  now 
since  he  has  been  trying  to  restore  the  reason  of  a 
daughter  of  one  of  his  friends,  Mademoiselle  Lydie  de 
la  Peyrade.  She  has  the  best  advice,  I  can  tell  you;  the 
very  first  doctors  in  Paris ;  only  this  morning  they  had  a 
consultation.  But  so  far  nothing  has  cured  her;  and 
they  have  to  watch  her  pretty  close ;  for  sometimes  she 
gets  up  and  walks  at  night  —  " 

"Mademoiselle  Lydie  de  la  Peyrade!"  exclaimed 
Cerizet;  "are  you  sure  of  the  name?" 

"I've  heard  Madame  Katte,  her  nurse,  who  also  does 
the  cooking,  call  her  so  a  thousand  times,  monsieur; 
though,  generally,  neither  Monsieur  Bruneau,  the  valet, 
nor  Madame  Katte  say  much.  It's  like  talking  to  the 
wall  to  try  and  get  any  information  out  of  them.  We 
have  been  porters  here  these  twenty  years  and  we  've 
never  found  out  anything  about  Monsieur  du  Portail  yet. 
More  than  that,  monsieur,  he  owns  the  little  house  along- 
side; you  see  the  double  door  from  here.  Well,  he  can 
go  out  that  way  and  receive  his  company  too,  and  we 
know  nothing  about  it.  Our  owner  does  n't  know  any 
more  than  we  do;  when  people  ring  at  that  door,  Mon- 
sieur Bruneau  goes  and  opens  it." 

"Then  you  didn't  see  the  gentleman  who  is  talking 
with  him  in  the  garden  go  by  this  way  ?  " 

"Bless  me!  no,  that  I  did  n't!  " 

"Ah!"  thought  Cerizet  as  he  got  into  the  cabriolet, 
"she  must  be  the  daughter  of  that  uncle  of  Theodose.  I 
wonder  if  du  Portail  can  be  the  secret  benefactor  who 
sent  money  from  time  to  time  to  that  rascal?  Suppose 
I  send  an  anonymous  letter  to  the  old  fellow,  warning 
him  of  the  danger  the  barrister  runs  from  those  notes  for 
twenty-five  thousand  francs  ?  " 


212  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

An  hour  later  the  cot-bed  arrived  for  Madame  Cardinal, 
to  whom  the  inquisitive  portress  offered  her  services  to 
bring  her  something  to  eat. 

"Do  you  want  to  see  the  rector?"  Madame  Cardinal 
inquired  of  her  uncle. 

She  had  noticed  that  the  arrival  of  the  bed  seemed  to 
draw  him  from  his  somnolence. 

"I  want  wine!  "  replied  the  pauper. 

"How  do  you  feel  now,  Pere  Toupillier?"  asked 
Madame  Perrache,   in  a  coaxing  voice. 

"I  tell  you,  I  want  wine,"  repeated  the  old  man,  with 
an  energetic  insistence  scarcely  to  be  expected  of  his 
feebleness. 

"We  must  first  find  out  if  it  is  good  for  you,  uncle," 
said  Madame  Cardinal,  soothingly.  "Wait  till  the 
doctor  comes." 

"Doctor!  I  won't  have  a  doctor!"  cried  Toupillier; 
"and  you,  what  are  you  doing  here?  I  don't  want  any- 
body." 

"My  good  uncle,  I  came  to  know  if  you  'd  like  some- 
thing tasty.  I've  got  some  nice  fresh  soles  —  hey!  a 
bit  of  fried  sole,  with  a  squeeze  of  lemon  on  it?" 

"Your  fish,  indeed!"  cried  Toupillier;  "all  rotten! 
That  last  you  brought  me,  more  than  six  weeks  ago,  it  is 
there  in  the  cupboard;  you  can  take  it  away  with  you." 

"Heavens!  how  ungrateful  sick  men  are!  "  whispered 
the  widow  Cardinal  to  la  Peyrade. 

Nevertheless,  to  exhibit  solicitude,  she  arranged  the 
pillow  under  the  patient's  head,  saying:  — 

"There!  uncle,  don't  you  feel  better  like  that?  " 

"Let  me  alone!  "  shouted  Toupillier,  angrily;  "I want 
no  one  here;  I  want  wine;  leave  me  in  peace." 

"Don't  get  angry,  little  uncle;  we'll  fetch  you  some 
wine." 

"Number  six  wine,  rue  des  Canettes,"  cried  the 
pauper. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie,  213 

"Yes,  I  know,"  replied  Madame  Cardinal;  "but  let 
me  count  out  my  coppers.  I  want  to  get  something 
better  for  you  than  that  kind  of  wine;  for,  don't  you 
see,  an  uncle,  he  's  a  kind  of  father,  and  one  should  n't 
mind  what  one  does  for  him." 

So  saying,  she  sat  down,  with  her  legs  apart,  on  one 
of  the  dilapidated  chairs,  and  poured  into  her  apron  the 
contents  of  her  pockets,  namely:  a  knife,  her  snuff-box, 
two  pawn-tickets,  some  crusts  of  bread,  and  a  handful 
of  copper,  from  which  she  extracted  a  few  silver  bits. 

This  exhibition,  intended  to  prove  her  generous  and 
eager  devotion,  had  no  result.  Toupillier  seemed  not  to 
notice  it.  Exhausted  by  the  feverish  energy  with  which 
he  had  demanded  his  favorite  remedy,  he  made  an  effort 
to  change  his  position,  and,  with  his  back  turned  to  his 
two  nurses,  he  again  muttered:  "Wine!  wine!"  after 
which  nothing  more  was  heard  of  him  but  a  stertorous 
breathing,  that  plainly  showed  the  state  of  his  lungs, 
which  were  beginning  to  congest. 

"I  suppose  I  must  go  and  fetch  his  wine!  "  said  the 
Cardinal,  restoring  to  her  pockets,  with  some  ill-humor, 
the  cargo  she  had  just  pulled  out  of  them. 

"If  you  don't  want  to  go  —  "  began  Madame  Perrache, 
always  ready  to  offer  her  services. 

The  fishwife  hesitated  a  moment ;  then,  reflecting  that 
something  might  be  got  out  of  a  conversation  with  the 
wine-merchant,  and  sure,  moreover,  that  as  long  as 
Toupillier  lay  on  his  gold  she  could  safely  leave  him 
alone  with  the  portress,  she  said:  — 

"Thank  you,  Madame  Perrache,  but  I  'd  better  make 
acquaintance  with  his  trades-folk." 

Then,  having  spied  behind  the  night-table  a  dirty 
bottle  which  might  hold  about  two  quarts,  — 

"Did  he  say  the  rue  des  Canelles?"  she  inquired  of 
the  portress. 

"Corner    of     the    rue    Guisarde,"    replied   Madame 


214  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Perrache.  "Monsieur  Legrelu,  a  tall,  fine  man  with  big 
whiskers  and  no  hair."  Then,  lowering  her  voice,  she 
added:  "His  number-six  wine,  you  know,  is  Roussillon, 
and  the  best,  too.  However,  the  wine-merchant  knows ; 
it  is  enough  if  you  tell  him  you  have  come  from  his 
customer,  the  pauper  of  Saint-Sulpice." 

"No  need  to  tell  me  anything  twice,"  said  the  Cardi- 
nal, opening  the  door  and  making,  as  they  say,  a  false 
exit.  "Ah  ca/"  she  said,  coming  back;  "what  does  he 
burn  in  his  stove,  supposing  I  want  to  heat  some  remedy 
for  him?" 

"Goodness!"  said  the  portress,  "he  doesn't  make 
much  provision  for  winter,  and  here  we  are  in  the  middle 
of  summer!  " 

"And  not  a  saucepan!  not  a  pot,  even!  Gracious! 
what  a  way  to  live.  I  '11  have  to  fetch  him  some  pro- 
visions; I  hope  nobody  will  see  the  things  I  bring  back; 
I  'd  be  ashamed  they  should  —  " 

"I  '11  lend  you  a  hand-bag,"  said  the  portress,  always 
ready  and  officious. 

"No,  I  '11  buy  a  basket,"  replied  the  fishwife,  more 
anxious  about  what  she  expected  to  carry  away  than 
what  she  was  about  to  bring  home  to  the  pauper. 
"There  must  be  some  Auvergnat  in  the  neighborhood 
who  sells  wood,"  she  added. 

"Corner  of  the  rue  Ferou;  you'll  find  one  there.  A 
fine  establishment,  with  logs  of  wood  painted  in  a  kind 
of  an  arcade  all  round  the  shop  —  so  like,  you  'd  think 
they  were  going  to  speak  to  you." 

Before  going  finally  off,  Madame  Cardinal  went  through 
a  piece  of  very  deep  hypocrisy.  We  have  seen  how  she 
hesitated  about  leaving  the  portress  alone  with  the  sick 
man:  — 

"Madame  Perrache,"  she  said  to  her,  "you  won't  leave 
him,  the  poor  darling,  will  you,  till  I  get  back?  " 

It  may  have  been  noticed  that  Cerizet  had  not  decided 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  215 

on  any  definite  course  of  action  in  the  new  affair  he 
was  now  undertaking.  The  part  of  doctor,  which  for  a 
moment  he  thought  of  assuming,  frightened  him,  and  he 
gave  himself  out,  as  we  have  seen,  to  Madame  Perrache 
as  the  business  agent  of  his  accomplice.  Once  alone,  he 
began  to  see  that  his  original  idea  complicated  with  a 
doctor,  a  nurse,  and  a  notary,  presented  the  most  serious 
difficulties.  A  regular  will  drawn  in  favor  of  Madame 
Cardinal  was  not  a  thing  to  be  improvised  in  a  moment. 
It  would  take  some  time  to  acclimatize  the  idea  in  the 
surly  and  suspicious  mind  of  the  old  pauper,  and  death, 
which  was  close  at  hand,  might  play  them  a  trick  at  any 
moment,  and  balk  the  most  careful  preparations. 

It  was  true  that  unless  a  will  were  made  the  income  of 
eight  thousand  francs  on  the  Grand  Livre  and  the  house 
in  the  rue  Notre-Dame  de  Nazareth  would  go  to  the 
heirs-at-law,  and  Madame  Cardinal  would  get  only  her 
share  of  the  property;  but  the  abandonment  of  this 
visible  portion  of  the  inheritance  was  the  surest  means 
of  laying  hands  on  the  invisible  part  of  it.  Besides,  if 
the  latter  were  secured,  what  hindered  their  returning  to 
the  idea  of  a  will? 

Resolving,  therefore,  to  confine  the  operation  to  the 
simplest  terms  at  first,  Cerizet  summed  them  up  in  the 
manoeuvre  of  the  poppy-heads,  already  mentioned,  and 
he  was  making  his  way  back  to  Toupillier's  abode, 
armed  with  that  single  weapon  of  war,  intending  to  give 
Madame  Cardinal  further  instructions,  when  he  met  her, 
bearing  on  her  arm  the  basket  she  had  just  bought;  and 
in  that  basket  was  the  sick  man's  panacea. 

"Upon  my  word!  "  cried  the  usurer,  "is  this  the  way 
you  keep  your  watch  ?  " 

"I  had  to  go  out  and  buy  him  wine,"  replied  the 
Cardinal;  "he  is  howling  like  a  soul  in  hell  that  he 
wants  to  be  at  peace,  and  to  be  let  alone,  and  get  his 
wine !     It  is  his  one  idea  that  Rousillon  is  good  for  his 


216  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

disease.  Well,  when  he  has  drunk  it,  I  dare  say  he  will 
be  quieter." 

"You  are  right,"  said  Cerizet,  sententiously;  "never 
contradict  a  sick  man.  But  this  wine,  you  know,  ought 
to  be  improved;  by  infusing  these"  (and  lifting  one 
of  the  covers  of  the  basket  he  slipped  in  the  poppies) 
"you  '11  procure  the  poor  man  a  good,  long  sleep, —  five 
or  six  hours  at  least.  This  evening  I  '11  come  and  see 
you,  and  nothing,  I  think,  need  prevent  us  from  examin- 
ing a  little  closer  those  matters  of  inheritance." 

"I  see,"  said  Madame  Cardinal,  winking. 

"To-night,  then,"  said  Cerizet,  not  wishing  to  prolong 
the  conversation. 

He  had  a  strong  sense  of  the  difficulty  and  danger  of 
the  affair,  and  was  very  reluctant  to  be  seen  in  the  street 
conversing  with  his  accomplice. 

Returning  to  her  uncle's  garret,  Madame  Cardinal 
found  him  still  in  a  state  of  semi-torpor;  she  relieved 
Madame  Perrache,  and  bade  her  good-bye,  going  to  the 
door  to  receive  a  supply  of  wood,  all  sawed,  which  she 
had  ordered  from  the  Auvergnat  in  the  rue  Ferou. 

Into  an  earthen  pot,  which  she  had  bought  of  the  right 
size  to  fit  upon  the  hole  in  the  stoves  of  the  poor  where 
they  put  their  soup-kettles,  she  now  threw  the  poppies, 
pouring  over  them  two-thirds  of  the  wine  she  had  brought 
back  with  her.  Then  she  lighted  a  fire  beneath  the  pot, 
intending  to  obtain  the  decoction  agreed  upon  as  quickly 
as  possible.  The  crackling  of  the  wood  and  the  heat, 
which  soon  spread  about  the  room,  brought  Toupillier 
out  of  his  stupor.  Seeing  the  stove  lighted  he  called 
out :  — 

"Who  is  making  a  fire  here?  Do  you  want  to  burn 
the  house  down?" 

"Why,  uncle,"  said  the  Cardinal,  "it  is  wood  I  bought 
with  my  own  money,  to  warm  your  wine.  The  doctor 
does  n't  want  you  to  drink  it  cold." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  217 

"Where  is  it,  that  wine?  "  demanded  Toupillier,  calm- 
ing down  a  little  at  the  thought  that  the  fire  was  not 
burning  at  his  expense. 

"It  must  come  to  a  boil,"  said  his  nurse;  "the  doctor 
insisted  upon  that.  Still,  if  you  '11  be  good  I  '11  give  you 
half  a  glass  of  it  cold,  just  to  wet  your  whistle.  I  '11 
take  that  upon  myself,  but  don't  you  tell  the  doctor." 

"Doctor!  I  won't  have  a  doctor;  they  are  all  scoun- 
drels, invented  to  kill  people,"  cried  Toupillier,  whom 
the  idea  of  drink  had  revived.  "Come,  give  me  the 
wine !  "  he  said,  in  the  tone  of  a  man  whose  patience 
had  come  to  an  end. 

Convinced  that  though  this  compliance  would  do  no 
harm  it  could  do  no  good,  Madame  Cardinal  poured  out 
half  a  glass,  and  while  she  gave  it  with  one  hand  to 
the  sick  man,  with  the  other  she  raised  him  to  a  sitting 
posture  that  he  might  drink  it. 

With  his  fleshless,  eager  fingers  Toupillier  clutched 
the  glass,  emptied  it  at  a  gulp,  and  exclaimed:  — 

"Ha!  that's  a  fine  drop,  that  is!  though  you've 
watered  it." 

"You  mustn't  say  that,  uncle;  I  went  and  bought  it 
myself  of  Pere  Legrelu,  and  I  've  given  it  you  quite 
pure.  But  you  let  me  simmer  the  rest;  the  doctor  said  I 
might  then  give  you  all  you  wanted." 

Toupillier  resigned  himself  with  a  shrug  of  the  shoul- 
ders. At  the  end  of  fifteen  minutes,  the  infusion  being 
in  condition  to  serve,  Madame  Cardinal  brought  him, 
without  further  appeal,  a  full  cup  of  it. 

The  avidity  with*  which  the  old  pauper  drank  it  down 
prevented  him  from  noticing  at  first  that  the  wine  was 
drugged;  but  as  he  swallowed  the  last  drops  he  tasted 
the  sickly  and  nauseating  flavor,  and  flinging  the  cup 
on  the  bed  he  cried  out  that  some  one  was  trying  to 
poison  him. 

"Poison!  nonsense!"  said  the  fishwife,  pouring  into 


218  The  Leaser  Bourgeoisie. 

her  own  mouth  a  few  drops  of  that  which  remained  in 
the  bottle,  declaring  to  the  old  man  that  if  the  wine  did 
not  seem  to  him  the  same  as  usual,  it  was  because  his 
mouth  had  a  "bad  taste  to  it." 

Before  the  end  of  the  dispute,  which  lasted  some  time, 
the  narcotic  began  to  take  effect,  and  at  the  end  of  an 
hour  the  sick  man  was  sound  asleep. 

While  idly  waiting  for  Cerizet,  an  idea  took  posses- 
sion of  the  Cardinal's  mind.  She  thought  that  in  view 
of  their  comings  and  goings  with  the  treasure,  it  would 
be  well  if  the  vigilance  of  the  Perrache  husband  and 
wife  could  be  dulled  in  the  same  manner.  Consequently, 
after  carefully  flinging  the  refuse  poppy-heads  into  the 
privy,  she  called  to  the  portress :  — 

"Madame  Perrache,  come  up  and  taste  his  wine. 
Would  n't  you  have  thought  to  hear  him  talk  he  was 
ready  to  drink  a  cask  of  it?  Well,  a  cupful  satisfied 
him." 

"Your  health!"  said  the  portress,  touching  glasses 
with  the  Cardinal,  who  was  careful  to  have  hers  filled 
with  the  unboiled  wine.  Less  accomplished  as  a  gourmet 
than  the  old  beggar,  Madame  Perrache  perceived  nothing 
in  the  insidious  liquid  (cold  by  the  time  she  drank  it)  to 
make  her  suspect  its  narcotic  character;  on  the  contrary, 
she  declared  it  was  "velvet,"  and  wished  that  her  hus- 
band were  there  to  have  a  share  in  the  treat.  After 
a  rather  long  gossip,  the  two  women  separated.  Then, 
with  the  cooked  meat  she  had  provided  for  herself,  and 
the  remains  of  the  Roussillon,  Madame  Cardinal  made  a 
repast  which  she  finished  off  with  a  siesta.  Without 
mentioning  the  emotions  of  the  day,  the  influence  of 
one  of  the  most  heady  wines  of  the  country  would  have 
sufficed  to  explain  the  soundness  of  her  sleep ;  when  she 
woke  darkness  was  coming  on. 

Her  first  care  was  to  give  a  glance  at  her  patient ;  his 
sleep  was  restless,  and  he  was  dreaming  aloud. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  219 

"Diamonds, "  he  said;  "those  diamonds?  At  my 
death,  but  not  before." 

"Gracious!"  thought  Madame  Cardinal,  "that  was 
the  one  thing  lacking,  —  diamonds!  that  he  should  have 
diamonds !  *' 

Then,  as  Toupillier  seemed  to  be  in  the  grasp  of  a 
violent  nightmare,  she  leaned  over  him  so  as  not  to  lose 
a  word  of  his  speech,  hoping  to  gather  from  it  some 
important  revelation.  At  this  moment  a  slight  rap  given 
to  the  door,  from  which  the  careful  nurse  had  removed 
the  key,  announced  the  arrival  of  Cerizet. 

"Well?"  he  said,  on  entering. 

"He  has  taken  the  drug.  He  's  been  sound  asleep 
these  two  hours;  just  now,  in  dreaming,  he  was  talking 
of  diamonds." 

"Well,"  said  Cerizet,  "it  wouldn't  be  surprising  if 
we  found  some.  These  paupers,  when  they  set  out  to 
be  rich,  like  to  pile  up  everything." 

"Ahga!"  cried  the  Cardinal,  suddenly,  "what  made 
you  go  and  tell  Mere  Perrache  that  you  were  my  man  of 
business,  and  that  you  were  n't  a  doctor?  I  thought  we 
agreed  this  morning  that  you  were  coming  as  a  doctor?  " 

Cerizet  did  not  choose  to  admit  that  the  usurpation  of 
that  title  had  seemed  to  him  dangerous;  he  feared  to 
discourage  his  accomplice. 

"I  saw  that  the  woman  was  going  to  propose  a  consul- 
tation," he  replied,  "and  I  got  out  of  it  that  way." 

"Goodness!"  exclaimed  Madame  Cardinal,  "they  say 
fine  minds  come  together;  that  was  my  dodge,  too.  Call- 
ing you  my  man  of  business  seemed  to  give  that  old 
pilferer  a  few  ideas.  Did  they  see  you  come  in,  those 
porters  ?  " 

"I  thought,  as  I  went  by,"  replied  Cerizet,  "that  the 
woman  was  asleep  in  her  chair." 

"And  well  she  might  be,"  said  the  Cardinal,  sig- 
nificantly. 


220  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"What,  really?  "  said  Cerizet. 

"Parbleu!"  replied  the  fishwife;  "what's  enough  for 
one  is  enough  for  two;  the  rest  of  the  stuff  went  that 
way." 

"As  for  the  husband,  he  was  there,"  said  Cerizet;  "for 
he  gave  me  a  gracious  sign  of  recognition,  which  I  could 
have  done  without." 

"Wait  till  it  is  quite  dark,  and  we  '11  play  him  a  comedy 
that  shall  fool  him  finely." 

Accordingly,  ten  minutes  later,  the  fishwife,  with  a 
vim  that  delighted  the  usurer,  organized  for  the  innocent 
porter  the  comedy  of  a  monsieur  who  would  not,  out  of 
politeness,  let  her  accompany  him  to  the  door;  she  her- 
self with  equal  politeness  insisting.  Appearing  to  con- 
duct the  sham  physician  to  the  street  gate  she  pretended 
that  the  wind  had  blown  out  her  lamp,  and  under  pretext 
of  relighting  it  she  put  out  that  of  Perrache.  All  this 
racket,  accompanied  by  exclamations  and  a  bewildering 
loquacity,  was  so  briskly  carried  out  that  the  porter,  if 
summoned  before  the  police-court,  would  not  have  hesi- 
tated to  swear  that  the  doctor,  whose  arrival  he  had  wit- 
nessed, left  the  house  between  nine  and  ten  o'clock. 

When  the  two  accomplices  were  thus  in  tranquil  pos- 
session of  the  field  of  operations  Madame  Cardinal 
hung  up  her  rabbit's-hair  shawl  before  the  window  to 
exclude  all  possible  indiscretion  on  the  part  of  a  neigh- 
bor. In  the  Luxembourg  quarter  life  quiets  down  early. 
By  ten  o'clock  all  the  sounds  in  the  house  as  well  as 
those  out  of  doors  were  stilled,  and  Cerizet  declared  that 
the  moment  had  come  to  go  to  work ;  by  beginning  at 
once  they  were  certain  that  the  sleeper  would  remain 
under  the  influence  of  the  drug;  besides,  if  the  booty 
were  found  at  once,  Madame  Cardinal  could,  under  pre- 
tence of  a  sudden  attack  in  her  patient,  which  required 
her  to  fetch  a  remedy  from  the  apothecary,  get  the  por- 
ter to  open  the  street  gate  for  her  without  suspicion.     As 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  221 

all  porters  pull  the  gate-cord  from  their  beds,  Cerizet 
would  be  able  to  get  away  at  the  same  time  without 
notice. 

Powerful  in  advice,  Cerizet  was  a  very  incapable  hand 
in  action;  and,  without  the  robust  assistance  of  Mere 
Cardinal  he  could  never  have  lifted  what  might  almost 
be  called  the  corpse  of  the  former  drum-major.  Com- 
pletely insensible,  Toupillier  was  now  an  inert  mass,  a 
dead-weight,  which  could,  fortunately,  be  handled  with- 
out much  precaution,  and  the  athletic  Madame  Cardinal, 
gathering  strength  from  her  cupidity,  contrived,  notwith- 
standing Cerizet' s  inefficient  assistance,  to  effect  the 
transfer  of  her  uncle  from  one  bed  to  the  other. 

On  rummaging  the  bed  from  which  the  body  was 
moved,  nothing  was  found,  and  Madame  Cardinal, 
pressed  by  Cerizet  to  explain  why  she  had  confidently 
asserted  that  her  uncle  was  lying  on  one  hundred  thou- 
sand francs  in  gold,  was  forced  to  admit  that  a  talk  with 
Madame  Perrache,  and  her  own  fervid  imagination  were 
the  sole  grounds  of  her  certainty.  Cerizet  was  furious; 
having  for  one  whole  day  dallied  with  the  idea  and  hope 
of  fortune,  having,  moreover,  entered  upon  a  dangerous 
and  compromising  course  of  action,  only  to  find  himself, 
at  the  supreme  moment,  face  to  face  with  —  nothing ! 
The  disappointment  was  so  bitter  that  if  he  had  not  been 
afraid  of  the  muscular  strength  of  his  future  mother-in- 
law,  he  would  have  rushed  upon  her  with  some  frantic 
intention. 

His  anger,  however,  spent  itself  in  words.  Harshly 
abused,  Madame  Cardinal  contented  herself  by  remark- 
ing that  all  hope  was  not  lost,  and  then,  with  a  faith 
that  ought  to  have  moved  mountains,  she  set  to  work  to 
empty  the  straw  from  the  mattress  she  had  already  vainly 
explored  in  all  directions.  But  Cerizet  would  not  allow 
that  extreme  measure ;  he  remarked  that  after  the  autopsy 
of  a  straw  mattress  such  detritus  would  remain  upon  the 


222  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

floor  as  must  infallibly  give  rise  to  suspicion.  But  the 
Cardinal,  who  thought  this  caution  ridiculous,  was  deter- 
mined to,  at  least,  take  apart  the  flock  bedstead.  The 
passion  of  the  search  gave  extraordinary  vigilance  to 
her  senses,  and  as  she  raised  the  wooden  side-frame  she 
heard  the  fall  of  some  tiny  object  on  the  floor.  Seizing 
the  light  she  began  to  search  in  the  mound  of  filth  of  all 
kinds  that  was  under  the  bed,  and  finally  laid  her  hand 
on  a  bit  of  polished  steel  about  half  an  inch  long,  the 
use  of  which  was  to  her  inexplicable. 

4 'That 's  a  key!  "  cried  Cerizet,  who  was  standing  be- 
side her  with  some  indifference,  but  whose  imagination 
now  set  off  at  a  gallop. 

uHa!  ha!  you  see  I  was  right,"  cried  the  Cardinal. 
"But  what  can  it  open?"  she  added,  on  reflection; 
"nothing  bigger  than  a  doll's  house." 

44 No,"  said  Cerizet,  "it  is  a  modern  invention,  44and 
very  strong  locks  can  be  opened  with  that  little  instru- 
ment." 

With  a  rapid  glance  he  took  in  all  the  pieces  of  fur- 
niture in  the  room;  went  to  the  bureau  and  pulled  out 
the  drawers ;  looked  in  the  stove,  in  the  table ;  but  no- 
where did  he  find  a  lock  to  which  the  little  key  could  be 
adapted. 

Suddenly  the  Cardinal  had  a  flash  of  illumination. 

44 See  here!  "  she  said.  44I  remarked  that  the  old  thief, 
as  he  lay  on  his  bed,  never  took  his  eyes  off  the  wall  just 
opposite  to  him." 

44 A  cupboard  hidden  in  the  wall!  "  cried  Cerizet,  seiz- 
ing the  light  eagerly;  44it  is  not  impossible!  " 

Examining  attentively  the  door  of  the  alcove,  which 
was  opposite  the  bed's  head,  he  could  see  nothing  there 
but  a  vast  accumulation  of  dust  and  spiders'  webs.  He 
next  employed  the  sense  of  touch,  and  began  to  rap  and 
sound  the  wall  in  all  directions.  At  the  spot  to  which 
Toupillier's  constant  gaze  was  directed  he  thought  he 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  223 

perceived  in  a  very  narrow  space  a  slight  sonority,  and 
he  presently  perceived  that  he  was  rapping  on  wood. 
He  then  rubbed  the  spot  vigorously  with  his  handker- 
chief, and  beneath  the  thick  layer  of  dust  and  dirt  which 
he  thus  removed  he  found  a  piece  of  an  oak  plank  care- 
fully inserted  in  the  wall.  On  one  side  of  this  plank 
was  a  small  round  hole;  it  was  that  of  the  lock  which 
the  key  fitted! 

While  Cerizet  was  turning  the  key,  which  worked  with 
great  difficulty,  Madame  Cardinal,  holding  the  light,  was 
pale  and  breathless;  but,  oh!  cruel  deception!  the  cup- 
board, at  last  unlocked  and  open,  showed  only  an  empty 
space,  into  which  the  light  in  her  hand  fell  uselessly. 

Allowing  this  bacchante  to  give  vent  to  her  despair  by 
saluting  her  much-loved  uncle  with  the  harshest  epithets, 
Cerizet  quietly  inserted  his  arm  into  the  cupboard,  and 
after  feeling  it  over  at  the  back,  he  cried  out,  "An 
iron  safe!"  adding,  impatiently,  "Give  me  more  light, 
Madame  Cardinal." 

Then,  as  the  light  did  not  penetrate  to  the  depths  of 
the  cupboard,  he  snatched  the  candle  from  the  bottle, 
where,  in  default  of  a  candlestick,  the  Cardinal  had  stuck 
it,  and,  taking  it  in  his  hand,  moved  it  carefully  over 
all  parts  of  the  iron  safe,  the  existence  of  which  was  now 
a  certainty. 

"There  is  no  visible  lock,"  he  said.  "There  must  be 
a  secret  opening." 

"Isn't  he  sly,  that  old  villain!"  exclaimed  Madame 
Cardinal,  while  Cerizet' s  bony  fingers  felt  the  side  of 
the  safe  over  minutely. 

"Ha!"  he  exclaimed,  after  groping  for  ten  minutes, 
"I  have  it!" 

During  this  time  Madame  Cardinal's  life  seemed 
actually  suspended. 

Under  the  pressure  which  Cerizet  now  applied,  the 
iron   side  rose  quickly  into  the  thickness  of  the  wall 


224  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

above,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  mass  of  gold  thrown  pell- 
mell  into  a  large  excavation  that  was  now  exposed  to 
view,  lay  a  case  of  red  morocco,  which,  from  its  size 
and  appearance,  gave  promise  of  magnificent  booty. 

"I  take  the  diamonds  for  myself,"  said  Cerizet,  when 
he  had  opened  the  case  and  seen  the  splendid  jewels  it 
contained;  "you  won't  know  how  to  get  rid  of  them. 
I'll  leave  you  the  gold  for  your  share.  As  for  the  house 
and  the  money  in  the  Funds,  they  are  not  worth  the 
trouble  it  would  be  to  get  the  old  fellow  to  make  a 
will." 

"Not  so  fast,  my  little  man!"  replied  the  Cardinal, 
who  thought  this  decision  rather  summary;  "we  will  first 
count  the  money  —  " 

"Hush!  "  exclaimed  Cerizet,  apparently  listening  to  a 
sound. 

"What  is  it?  "  asked  the  Cardinal. 

"Don't  you  hear  some  one  moving  below?'* 

"No,  I  hear  nothing." 

Cerizet,  making  her  a  sign  to  be  silent,  listened 
attentively. 

"I  hear  a  step  on  the  stairs,"  he  said,  a  moment  later. 

Then  he  hastily  replaced  the  morocco  case,  and  made 
desperate  but  unavailing  efforts  to  lower  the  panel. 

"Yes!"  cried  Madame  Cardinal,  terrified;  "someone 
is  really  coming."  Then,  fastening  to  a  hope  of  safety, 
she  added,  "I  dare  say  it  is  that  insane  girl;  they  say 
she  walks  at  night." 

At  any  rate,  the  insane  girl  (if  it  were  she)  had  a  key 
to  the  room,  for,  a  moment  later,  this  key  was  inserted 
in  the  lock.  With  a  rapid  glance  Madame  Cardinal 
measured  the  distance  to  the  door;  should  she  have  time 
to  push  the  bolt?  No;  certain  that  it  was  then  too  late, 
so  she  blew  out  the  candle  to  give  herself  at  least  some 
chances  in  the  darkness. 

Useless  effort!  the  intruder  who  now  appeared  had 
brought  a  candle  with  him. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  225 

When  Madame  Cardinal  saw  that  she  had  to  do  with 
a  small,  old  man  of  puny  appearance,  she  flung  herself 
before  him  with  flaming  eyes,  like  a  lioness  from  whom 
the  hunter  is  seeking  to  take  her  cubs. 

"Be  calm,  my  good  woman,"  said  the  little  man,  in  a 
jeering  tone;  "the  police  are  sent  for;  they  will  be  here 
in  a  moment." 

At  the  word  "police  "  the  Cardinal's  legs  gave  way. 

"But,  monsieur,"  she  said,  "why  the  police?  we  are 
not  robbers." 

"No  matter  for  that;  if  I  were  in  your  place  I 
should  n't  wait  for  them,"  said  the  little  old  man;  "they 
make  unfortunate  mistakes  sometimes." 

"Can  I  clear  out?  "  asked  the  woman,  incredulously. 

"Yes,  if  you  empty  your  pockets  of  anything  which 
has,  by  accident,  got  into  them." 

"Oh!  my  good  monsieur,  I  haven't  a  thing  in  my 
hands  or  my  pockets;  I  was  n't  here  to  harm  any  one, — 
only  to  nurse  my  poor  dear  uncle;  you  can  search  me." 

"Come,  be  off  with  you!  that  will  do,"  said  the  old 
man. 

Madame  Cardinal  did  not  oblige  him  to  repeat  the 
order,  and  she  rapidly  disappeared  down  the  staircase. 

Cerizet  made  as  though  he  would  take  the  same  road. 

"You,  monsieur,  are  quite  another  thing,"  said  the 
little  old  man.  "You  and  I  must  talk  together;  but  if 
you  are  tractable,  the  affair  between  us  can  be  settled 
amicably." 

Whether  it  was  that  the  narcotic  had  ceased  to  operate, 
or  that  the  noise  going  on  about  Toupillier  put  an  end  to 
his  sleep,  he  now  opened  his  eyes  and  cast  around  him  the 
glance  of  a  man  who  endeavors  to  remember  where  he 
is;  then,  seeing  his  precious  cupboard  open,  he  found  in 
the  emotion  that  sight  produced  the  strength  to  cry  out 
two  or  three  times,  "Help!  help!  robbers!"  in  a  voice 
that  was  loud  enough  to  rouse  the  house. 

15 


226  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"No,  Toupillier,"  said  the  little  old  man;  "you  have 
not  been  robbed;  I  came  here  in  time  to  prevent  it; 
nothing  has  been  taken." 

"Why  don't  you  arrest  that  villain?"  shouted  the  old 
pauper,  pointing  to  Cerizet. 

"Monsieur  is  not  a  thief,"  replied  the  old  man.  "On 
the  contrary,  he  came  up  with  me  to  lend  assistance." 
Then,  turning  to  Cerizet,  he  added,  in  a  low  voice:  "I 
think,  my  good  friend,  that  we  had  better  postpone  the 
interview  I  desire  to  have  with  you  until  to-morrow. 
Come  at  ten  o'clock  to  the  adjoining  house,  and  ask  for 
Monsieur  du  Portail.  After  what  has  passed  this  even- 
ing, there  will,  I  ought  to  warn  you,  be  some  danger  to 
you  in  not  accepting  this  conference.  I  shall  find  you 
elsewhere,  infallibly;  for  I  have  the  honor  to  know  who 
you  are;  you  are  the  man  whom  the  Opposition  journals 
were  accustomed  to  call  4  the  courageous  Cerizet. '  ** 

In  spite  of  the  profound  sarcasm  of  this  remark, 
Cerizet,  perceiving  that  he  was  not  to  be  treated  more 
rigorously  than  Madame  Cardinal,  felt  so  pleased  with 
this  conclusion  that  he  promised,  very  readily,  to  keep 
the  appointment,  and  then  slipped  away  with  all  the 
haste  he  could. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  227 


XVI. 

DU    PORTAIL. 

The  next  day  Cerizet  did  not  fail  to  appear  at  the 
rendezvous  given  to  him.  Examined,  at  first,  through 
the  wicket  of  the  door,  he  was  admitted,  after  giving  his 
name,  into  the  house,  and  was  ushered  immediately  to  the 
study  of  Monsieur  du  Portail,  whom  he  found  at  his  desk. 

Without  rising,  and  merely  making  a  sign  to  his  guest 
to  take  a  chair,  the  little  old  man  continued  the  letter  he 
was  then  writing.  After  sealing  it  with  wax,  with  a  care 
and  precision  that  denoted  a  nature  extremely  fastidious 
and  particular,  or  else  a  man  accustomed  to  discharge 
diplomatic  functions,  du  Portail  rang  for  Bruneau,  his 
valet,  and  said,  as  he  gave  him  the  letter:  — 

"For  the  justice-of-peace  of  the  arrondissement." 

Then  he  carefully  wiped  the  steel  pen  he  had  just  used, 
restored  to  their  places,  symmetrically,  all  the  displaced 
articles  on  his  desk,  and  it  was  only  when  these  little 
arrangements  were  completed  that  he  turned  to  Cerizet, 
and  said :  — 

"You  know,  of  course,  that  we  lost  that  poor  Monsieur 
Toupillier  last  night?" 

"No,  really?  "  said  Cerizet,  putting  on  the  most  sym- 
pathetic air  he  could  manage.  "This  is  my  first  knowl- 
edge of  it,  monsieur." 

"But  you  probably  expected  it.  When  one  gives  a 
dying  man  an  immense  bowl  of  hot  wine,  which  has  also 
been  narcotized,  —  for  the  Perrache  woman  slept  all  night 
in  a  sort  of  lethargy  after  drinking  a  small  glass  of  it,  — 
it  is  evident  that  the  catastrophe  has  been  hastened." 


228  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"I  am  ignorant,  monsieur,"  said  Cerizet,  with  dignity, 
"of  what  Madame  Cardinal  may  have  given  to  her  uncle. 
I  have  no  doubt  committed  a  great  piece  of  thoughtless- 
ness in  assisting  this  woman  to  obtain  an  inheritance  to 
which  she  assured  me  she  had  legal  rights;  but  as  to 
attempting  the  life  of  that  old  pauper,  I  am  quite  inca- 
pable of  such  a  thing ;  nothing  of  the  kind  ever  entered 
my  mind." 

"You  wrote  me  this  letter,  I  think,"  said  du  Portail, 
abruptly,  taking  from  beneath  a  bohemian  glass  bowl  a 
paper  which  he  offered  to  Cerizet. 

" A  letter?"  replied  Cerizet,  with  the  hesitation  of  a 
man  who  does  n't  know  whether  to  lie  or  speak  the  truth. 

"I  am  quite  sure  of  what  I  say,"  continued  du  Portail. 
"I  have  a  mania  for  autographs,  and  I  possess  one  of 
yours,  obtained  at  the  period  when  the  Opposition 
exalted  you  to  the  glorious  rank  of  martyr.  I  have 
compared  the  two  writings,  and  I  find  that  you  certainly 
wrote  me,  yesterday,  the  letter  which  you  hold  in  your 
hand,  informing  me  of  the  money  embarrassments  of 
young  la  Peyrade  at  the  present  moment." 

"Well,"  said  Cerizet,  "knowing  that  you  had  given 
a  home  to  Mademoiselle  de  la  Peyrade,  who  is  probably 
cousin  of  Theodose,  I  thought  I  recognized  in  you  the 
mysterious  protector  from  whom,  on  more  than  one 
occasion,  my  friend  has  received  the  most  generous 
assistance.  Now,  as  I  have  a  sincere  affection  for  that 
poor  fellow,  it  was  in  his  interests  that  I  permitted 
myself  —  " 

"You  did  quite  right,"  interrupted  du  Portail.  "I  am 
delighted  to  have  fallen  in  with  a  friend  of  la  Peyrade. 
I  ought  not  to  conceal  from  you  that  it  was  this  partic- 
ular fact  which  protected  you  last  night.  But  tell  me, 
what  is  this  about  notes  for  twenty-five  thousand  francs  ? 
Is  our  friend  so  badly  off  in  his  affairs?  Is  he  leading  a 
dissipated  life?" 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  229 

"On  the  contrary,"  replied  Cerizet;  "he 's  a  puritan. 
Given  to  the  deepest  piety,  he  did  not  choose  to  take,  as 
a  barrister,  any  other  cases  but  those  of  the  poor.  He  is 
now  on  the  point  of  making  a  rich  marriage." 

"Ah!  is  he  going  to  be  married?  and  to  whom?  " 

"To  a  Demoiselle  Colleville,  daughter  of  the  secretary 
of  the  mayor  of  the  12th  arrondissement.  In  herself, 
the  girl  has  no  fortune,  but  a  certain  Monsieur  Thuillier, 
her  godfather,  member  of  the  Council-general  of  the 
Seine,  has  promised  her  a  suitable  dot." 

"Who  has  handled  this  affair?" 

"La  Peyrade  has  been  devoted  to  the  Thuillier  family, 
into  which  he  was  introduced  by  Monsieur  Dutocq,  clerk 
of  the  justice-of-peace  for  their  arrondissement." 

"But  you  wrote  me  that  these  notes  were  signed  in 
favor  of  Monsieur  Dntocq.  The  affair  is  a  bit  of 
matrimonial  brokerage,  in  short?" 

"Well,  something  of  that  kind,"  replied  Cerizet. 
"You  know,  monsieur,  that  in  Paris  such  transactions 
are  very  common.  Even  the  clergy  don't  disdain  to 
have  a  linger  in  them." 

"Is  the  marriage  a  settled  thing?  " 

"Yes,  and  within  the  last  few  days  especially." 

"  Well,  my  good  sir,  I  rely  on  you  to  put  an  end  to  it. 
I  have  other  views  for  Thsodose, —  another  marriage  to 
propose  to  him." 

"Excuse  me!"  said  Cerizet,  "to  break  up  this  mar- 
riage would  make  it  impossible  for  him  to  pay  his  notes; 
and  I  have  the  honor  to  call  your  attention  to  the  fact 
that  these  particular  bills  of  exchange  are  serious  mat- 
ters. Monsieur  Dutocq  is  in  the  office  of  the  justice-of- 
peace;  in  other  words,  he  couldn't  be  easily  defeated  in 
such  a  matter." 

"The  debt  to  Monsieur  Dutocq  you  shall  buy  off  your- 
self," replied  du  PortaiL  "Make  arrangements  with  him 
to  that  effect.     Should  Theodose  prove  reluctant  to  carry 


230  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

out  my  plans,  those  notes  may  become  a  useful  weapon 
in  our  hands.  You  will  take  upon  yourself  to  sue  him 
for  them,  and  you  shall  have  no  money  responsibility  in 
the  matter.  I  will  pay  you  the  amount  of  the  notes  for 
Dutocq,  and  your  costs  in  suing  The*odose." 

"You  are  square  in  business,  monsieur,"  said  Cerizet. 
"There  's  some  pleasure  in  being  your  agent.  Now,  if 
you  think  the  right  moment  has  come,  I  should  be  glad 
if  you  would  give  me  some  better  light  on  the  mission 
you  are  doing  me  the  honor  to  place  in  my  hands." 

"You  spoke  just  now,"  replied  du  Portail,  "of  the 
cousin  of  Theodose,  Mademoiselle  Lydie  de  la  Peyrade. 
This  young  woman,  who  is  not  in  her  first  youth,  for  she 
is  nearly  thirty,  is  the  natural  daughter  of  the  celebrated 
Mademoiselle  Beaumesnil  of  the  Theatre  Francais  and 
Peyrade,  the  commissary-general  of  police  under  the 
Empire,  and  the  uncle  of  our  friend.  Until  his  death, 
which  occurred  suddenly,  leaving  his  daughter,  whom  he 
loved  tenderly,  without  means  of  support,  I  was  bound 
to  that  excellent  man  with  the  warmest  friendship." 

Glad  to  show  that  he  had  some  knowledge  of  du 
Portail's  interior  life,  Cerizet  hastened  to  remark:  — 

"And  you  have  sacredly  fulfilled  the  duties  of  that 
friendship,  monsieur;  for,  in  taking  into  your  home  that 
interesting  orphan  you  assumed  a  difficult  guardianship. 
Mademoiselle  de  la  Peyrade' s  state  of  health  requires, 
I  am  told,  a  care  not  only  affectionate,  but  persevering." 

"Yes,"  replied  du  Portail,  "the  poor  girl,  after  the 
death  of  her  father,  was  so  cruelly  tried  that  her  mind 
has  been  somewhat  affected;  but  a  fortunate  change  has 
lately  occurred  in  her  condition,  and  only  yesterday  I 
called  in  consultation  Doctor  Bianchon  and  the  two 
physicians-in-charge  of  Bicetre  and  the  Salpetriere. 
These  gentlemen  unanimously  declare  that  marriage  and 
the  birth  of  a  first  child  would  undoubtedly  restore  her 
to  perfect  health.  You  can  readily  understand  that  the 
remedy  is  too  easy  and  agreeable  not  to  be  attempted." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  231 

"Then,"  said  Cerizet,  "it  is  to  Mademoiselle  Lydie 
de  la  Peyrade,  his  cousin,  that  you  wish  to  marry 
Theodose." 

"You  have  said  it,"  returned  du  Portail,  "and  you 
must  not  think  that  our  young  friend,  if  he  accepts  the 
marriage,  will  be  called  upon  to  show  a  gratuitous  devo- 
tion. Lydie  is  very  agreeable  in  person ;  she  has  talents, 
a  charming  disposition,  and  she  can  bring  to  bear,  in  her 
husband's  interest,  a  strong  influence  in  public  life. 
She  has,  moreover,  a  pretty  fortune,  consisting  of  what 
her  mother  left  her,  and  of  my  entire  property,  which, 
having  no  heirs  myself,  I  intend  to  secure  to  her  in  the 
marriage  contract.  Besides  all  this,  she  has  this  very 
night  acquired  a  not  inconsiderable  legacy." 

"What!  "  exclaimed  Cerizet,  "do  you  mean  that  old 
Toupillier  —  " 

"  By  a  will  in  his  own  handwriting,  which  I  have  here, 
that  old  pauper  constitutes  her  his  sole  legatee.  You 
see,  therefore,  that  I  showed  some  kindness  in  not  pro- 
ceeding against  you  and  Madame  Cardinal  for  your  little 
attempt  last  night;  it  was  simply  our  property  that  you 
were  trying  to  pillage." 

"Heavens!"  cried  Cerizet,  "I  won't  pretend  to  ex- 
cuse Madame  Cardinal's  misconduct;  and  yet,  as  one  of 
the  legal  heirs,  dispossessed  by  a  stranger,  she  had,  it 
seems  to  me,  some  right  to  the  indulgence  which  you 
certainly  showed  to  her." 

"In  that  you  are  mistaken,"  said  du  Portail;  "the 
apparent  liberality  of  the  old  beggar  to  Mademoiselle 
de  la  Peyrade  happens  to  be  only  a  restitution." 

"A  restitution!"  exclaimed  Cerizet,  in  a  tone  of 
curiosity. 

"A  restitution,"  repeated  du  Portail,  "and  nothing  is 
easier  than  to  -prove  it.  Do  you  remember  the  robbery 
of  some  diamonds  from  one  of  our  dramatic  celebrities 
about  ten  years  ago  ?  " 


232  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Yes,"  replied  Cerizet.  "I  was  manager  of  one  of 
my  newspapers  at  the  time,  and  I  used  to  write  the 
1  Paris  items.'  But  stay,  I  remember,  the  actress  who 
lost  them  was  Mademoiselle  Beaumesnil." 

"Precisely;  the  mother  of  Mademoiselle  de  la  Peyrade." 

"Consequently,  this  miserable  old  Toupillier  —  no,  I 
remember  that  the  thief  was  convicted;  his  name  was 
Charles  Crochard.  It  was  said,  under  the  rose,  that  he 
was  the  natural  son  of  a  great  personage,  the  Comte  de 
Granville,  attorney-general  under  the  Restoration."  [See 
"A  Double  Life."] 

"Well,"  said  du  Portail,  "this  is  how  it  happened. 
The  robbery  was  committed  in  a  house  in  the  rue  de 
Tournon,  occupied  by  Mademoiselle  Beaumesnil.  Charles 
Crochard,  who  was  a  handsome  fellow,  was  said  to  have 
the  run  of  it  —  " 

"Yes,  yes,"  cried  Cerizet,  "I  remember  Mademoiselle 
Beaumesnil's  embarrassment  when  she  gave  her  testi- 
mony —  and  also  the  total  extinction  of  voice  that 
attacked  her  when  the  judge  asked  her  age." 

"The  robbery,"  continued  du  Portail,  "was  auda- 
ciously committed  in  the  daytime;  and  no  sooner  did 
Charles  Crochard  get  possession  of  the  casket  than  he 
went  to  the  church  of  Saint-Sulpice,  where  he  had  an 
appointment  with  an  accomplice,  who,  being  supplied 
with  a  passport,  was  to  start  immediately  with  the  dia- 
monds for  foreign  parts.  It  so  chanced  that  on  enter- 
ing the  church,  instead  of  meeting  the  man  he  expected, 
who  was  a  trifle  late,  Charles  Crochard  came  face  to  face 
with  a  celebrated  agent  of  the  detective  force,  who  was 
well  known  to  him,  inasmuch  as  the  young  rascal  was 
not  at  his  first  scrimmage  with  the  police.  The  absence 
of  his  accomplice,  this  encounter  with  the  detective,  and, 
lastly,  a  rapid  movement  made  by  the  latter,  by  the 
merest  chance,  toward  the  door,  induced  the  robber  to 
fancy  he  was  being  watched.     Losing  his  head  under 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  233 

this  idea,  he  wanted,  at  any  cost,  to  put  the  casket 
out  of  his  possession,  knowing  that  if  arrested,  as  he 
expected,  at  the  door  of  the  church,  it  would  be  a  dam- 
ning proof  against  him.  Catching  sight  at  that  moment 
of  Toupillier,  who  was  then  the  giver  of  holy  water, 
'My  man,'  said  he,  making  sure  that  no  one  overheard 
their  colloquy,  '  will  you  take  care  of  this  little  package 
for  me?  It  is  a  box  of  lace.  I  am  going  near  by  to  a 
countess  who  is  slow  to  pay  her  bill ;  and  if  I  have  the 
lace  with  me  she  '11  want  to  see  it,  for  it  is  a  new  style, 
and  she  '11  ask  me  to  leave  it  with  her  on  credit,  instead 
of  paying  the  bill;  therefore  I  don't  want  to  take  it. 
'But,'  he  added,  'be  sure  not  to  touch  the  paper  that 
wraps  the  box,  for  there  's  nothing  harder  than  to  do 
up  a  package  in  the  same  folds  —  '  " 

"The  booby!"  cried  Cerizet,  naively;  "why,  that 
very  caution  would  make  the  man  want  to  open  it." 

"You  are  an  able  casuist,"  said  du  Portail.  "Well, 
an  hour  later,  Charles  Crochard,  finding  that  nothing  hap- 
pened to  him,  returned  to  the  church  to  obtain  his  deposit, 
but  Toupillier  was  no  longer  there.  You  can  imagine 
the  anxiety  with  which  Charles  Crochard  attended  early 
mass  the  next  day,  and  approached  the  giver  of  holy 
water,  who  was  there,  sure  enough,  attending  to  his 
functions.  But  night,  they  say,  brings  counsel;  the 
worthy  beggar  audaciously  declared  that  he  had  received 
no  package,  and  did  not  know  what  his  interlocutor 
meant." 

"And  there  was  no  possibility  of  arguing  with  him, 
for  that  would  be  exposure,"  remarked  Cerizet,  who  was 
not  far  from  sympathizing  in  a  trick  so  boldly  played. 

"No  doubt,"  resumed  du  Portail;  "the  robbery  was 
already  noised  about,  and  Toupillier,  who  was  a  very 
able  fellow,  had-  calculated  that  Charles  Crochard  would 
not  dare  to  publicly  accuse  him,  for  that  would  reveal 
the  theft.     In  fact,  on  his  trial  Charles  Crochard  never 


234  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

said  a  word  of  his  mishap,  and  during  the  six  years  he 
spent  at  the  galleys  (he  was  condemned  to  ten,  but  four 
were  remitted)  he  did  not  open  his  lips  to  a  single  soul 
about  the  treachery  of  which  he  had  been  a  victim." 

"That  was  pretty  plucky,"  said  Cerizet;  the  tale 
excited  him,  and  he  showed  openly  that  he  saw  the 
matter  as  an  artist  and  a  connoisseur. 

"In  that  interval,"  continued  du  Portail,  "Madame 
Beaumesnil  died,  leaving  her  daughter  a  few  fragments 
of  a  once  great  fortune,  and  the  diamonds  which  the  will 
expressly  stated  Lydie  was  to  receive  'in  case  they 
were  recovered.'  " 

"Ha!  ha  !"  exclaimed  Cerizet,  "bad  for  Toupillier, 
because,  having  to  do  with  a  man  of  your  calibre  —  " 

"Charles  Crochard's  first  object  on  being  liberated 
was  vengeance  on  Toupillier,  and  his  first  step  was  to 
denounce  him  to  the  police  as  receiver  of  the  stolen 
property.  Taken  in  hand  by  the  law,  Toupillier  defended 
himself  with  such  singular  good-humor,  being  able  to 
show  that  no  proof  whatever  existed  against  him,  that 
the  examining  judge  let  him  off.  He  lost  his  place, 
however,  as  giver  of  holy  water,  obtaining,  with  great 
difficulty,  permission  to  beg  at  the  door  of  the  church. 
For  my  part,  I  was  certain  of  his  guilt;  and  I  managed 
to  have  the  closest  watch  kept  upon  him ;  though  I  relied 
far  more  upon  myself.  Being  a  man  of  means  and 
leisure,  I  stuck,  as  you  may  say,  to  the  skin  of  my  thief, 
and  did,  in  order  to  unmask  him,  one  of  the  cleverest 
things  in  my  career.  He  was  living  at  that  time  in  the 
rue  du  Coeur- Volant.  I  succeeded  in  becoming  the  tenant 
of  the  room  adjoining  his;  and  one  night,  through  a 
gimlet  hole  I  had  drilled  in  the  partition,  I  saw  my 
man  take  the  case  of  diamonds  from  a  very  cleverly  con- 
trived hiding-place.  He  sat  for  an  hour  gazing  at  them 
and  fondling  them ;  he  made  them  sparkle  in  the  light, 
he   pressed   them    passionately   to   his   lips.     The   man 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  235 

actually  loved  those  diamonds  for  themselves,  and  had 
never  thought  of  turning  them  to  money." 

"I  understand,"  said  Cerizet,  —  "a  mania  like  that  of 
Cardillac,  the  jeweller,  which  has  now  been  dramatized." 

"That  is  just  it,"  returned  du  Portail;  "the  poor  wretch 
was  in  love  with  that  casket;  so  that  when,  shortly 
after,  I  entered  his  room  and  told  him  I  knew  all,  he 
proposed  to  me  to  leave  him  the  life  use  of  what  he  called 
the  consolation  of  his  old  age,  pledging  himself  to  make 
Mademoiselle  de  la  Peyrade  his  sole  heir,  revealing  to 
me  at  the  same  time  the  existence  of  a  hoard  of  gold  (to 
which  he  was  adding  every  day),  and  also  the  possession 
of  a  house  and  an  investment  in  the  Funds." 

"If  he  made  that  proposal  in  good  faith,"  said  Cerizet, 
"  it  was  a  desirable  one.  The  interest  of  the  capital 
sunk  in  the  diamonds  was  more  than  returned  by  that 
from  the  other  property." 

"You  now  see,  my  dear  sir,"  said  du  Portail,  "that  I 
was  not  mistaken  in  trusting  him.  All  my  precautions 
were  well  taken ;  I  exacted  that  he  should  occupy  a  room 
in  the  house  I  lived  in,  where  I  could  keep  a  close  eye 
upon  him.  I  assisted  him  in  making  that  hiding-place, 
the  secret  of  which  you  discovered  so  cleverly ;  but  what 
you  did  not  find  out  was  that  in  touching  the  spring  that 
opened  the  iron  safe  you  rang  a  bell  in  my  apartment, 
which  warned  me  of  any  attempt  that  was  made  to 
remove  our  treasure." 

"Poor  Madame  Cardinal!"  cried  Cerizet,  good- 
humoredly,  "how  far  she  was  from  suspecting  it!" 

"Now  here's  the  situation,"  resumed  du  Portail. 
"On  account  of  the  interest  I  feel  in  the  nephew  of  my 
old  friend,  and  also,  on  account  of  the  relationship, 
this  marriage  seems  to  me  extremely  desirable ;  in  short, 
I  unite  Theodose  to  his  cousin  and  her  dot.  As  it  is 
possible  that,  considering  the  mental  state  of  his  future 
wife,  Theodose  may  object  to  sharing  my  views,  I  have 


236  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

not  thought  it  wise  to  make  this  proposal  directly  to 
himself.  You  have  suddenly  turned  up  upon  my  path; 
I  know  already  that  you  are  clever  and  wily,  and  that 
knowledge  induces  me  to  put  this  little  matrimonial  nego- 
tiation into  your  hands.  Now,  I  think,  you  understand 
the  matter  thoroughly;  speak  to  him  of  a  fine  girl,  with 
one  little  drawback,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  comfort- 
able fortune.  Do  not  name  her  to  him ;  and  come  here 
and  let  me  know  how  the  proposal  has  been  taken." 

"Your  confidence  delights  me  as  much  as  it  honors 
me,"  replied  Cerizet,  "and  I  will  justify  it  the  best  I 
can." 

"We  must  not  expect  too  much,"  said  du  Portail. 
" Refusal  will  be  the  first  impulse  of  a  man  who  has  an 
affair  on  hand  elsewhere ;  but  we  need  not  consider  our- 
selves beaten.  I  shall  not  easily  give  up  a  plan  which  I 
know  to  be  just,  even  if  I  push  my  zeal  so  far  as  to  put 
la  Peyrade  under  lock  and  key  in  Clichy.  I  am  resolved 
not  to  take  no  for  his  answer  to  a  proposal  of  which,  in 
the  end,  he  cannot  fail  to  see  the  propriety.  Therefore, 
in  any  case,  buy  up  those  notes  from  Monsieur  Dutocq." 

"At  par?  "  asked  Cerizet. 

"Yes,  at  par,  if  you  cannot  do  better;  we  are  not 
going  to  haggle  over  a  few  thousand  francs ;  only,  when 
this  transaction  is  arranged,  Monsieur  Dutocq  must 
pledge  us  either  his  assistance  or,  at  the  very  least,  his 
neutrality.  After  what  you  have  said  of  the  other  mar- 
riage, it  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  warn  you  that  there  is 
not  a  moment  to  lose  in  putting  our  irons  into  the  fire." 

"Two  days  hence  I  have  an  appointment  with  la 
Peyrade,"  said  Cerizet.  "We  have  a  little  matter  of 
business  of  our  own  to  settle.  Don't  you  think  it  would 
be  best  to  wait  till  then,  when  I  can  introduce  the  pro- 
posal incidentally?  In  case  of  resistance,  I  think  that 
arrangement  would  best  conduce  to  our  dignity." 

"So  be  it,  "said  du  Portail;  "it  isn't  much  of  a  delay. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  237 

Remember,  monsieur,  that  if  you  succeed  you  have,  in 
place  of  a  man  able  to  bring  you  to  a  stern  account  for 
your  imprudent  assistance  to  Madame  Cardinal,  a  greatly 
obliged  person,  who  will  be  ready  at  all  times  to  serve 
you,  and  whose  influence  is  greater  than  is  generally 
supposed." 

After  these  friendly  words,  the  pair  separated  with  a 
thoroughly  good  understanding,  and  well  satisfied  with 
each  other. 


238  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


XVII. 

IN  WHICH  THE  LAMB  DEVOURS  THE  WOLF. 

The  evening  before  the  day  already  agreed  upon, 
Theodose  received  from  Cerizet  the  following  note :  — 

"  To-morrow,  lease  or  no  lease,  Rocher  de  Cancale, 
half-past  six  o'clock." 

As  for  Dutocq,  Cerizet  saw  him  every  day,  for  he  was 
still  his  copying  clerk;  he  therefore  gave  him  his  invi- 
tation by  word  of  mouth;  but  the  attentive  reader  must 
remark  a  difference  in  the  hour  named:  "Quarter-past 
six,  Rocher  de  Cancale,"  said  Cerizet.  It  was  evident, 
therefore,  that  he  wanted  that  fifteen  minutes  with 
Dutocq  before  the  arrival  of  la  Peyrade. 

Those  minutes  the  usurer  proposed  to  employ  in 
jockeying  Dutocq  in  the  purchase  of  the  notes;  he 
fancied  that  if  the  proposition  to  buy  them  were  sud- 
denly put  before  him  without  the  slightest  preparation 
it  might  be  more  readily  received.  By  not  leaving  the 
seller  time  to  bethink  himself,  perhaps  he  might"  lead 
him  to  loosen  his  grasp,  and  the  notes  once  bought  below 
par,  he  could  consider  at  his  leisure  whether  to  pocket 
the  difference  or  curry  favor  with  du  Portail  for  the  dis- 
count he  had  obtained.  Let  us  say,  moreover,  that  apart 
from  self-interest,  Cerizet  would  still  have  endeavored 
to  scrape  a  little  profit  out  of  his  friend;  'twas  an  instinct 
and  a  need  of  his  nature.  He  had  as  great  horror  for 
straight  courses  as  the  lovers  of  English  gardens  show 
in  the  lines  of  their  paths. 

Dutocq,  having  still  a  portion  of  the  cost  of  his  prac- 
tice to  pay  off,  was  forced  to  live  very  sparingly,  so  that 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  239 

a  dinner  at  the  Rocher  de  Cancale  was  something  of  an 
event  in  the  economy  of  his  straitened  existence.  He 
arrived,  therefore,  with  that  punctuality  which  testifies 
to  an  interest  in  the  occasion,  and  precisely  at  a  quarter 
past  six  he  entered  the  private  room  of  the  restaurant 
where  Cerizet  awaited  him. 

"It  is  queer,"  he  said;  "here  we  are  returned  to  pre- 
cisely the  situation  in  which  we  began  our  business  rela- 
tions with  la  Peyrade, —  except,  to  be  sure,  that  this 
present  place  of  meeting  of  the  three  emperors  is  more 
comfortable;  I  prefer  the  Tilsit  of  the  rue  Montorgeuil 
to  the  Tilsit  of  the  Cheval  Rouge." 

"Faith!  "  said  Cerizet,  "I  don't  know  that  the  results 
obtained  justify  the  change,  for,  to  be  frank,  where  are 
the  profits  to  us  in  the  scheme  of  our  triumvirate?  " 

"But,"  said  Dutocq,  "it  was  a  bargain  with  a  long 
time  limit.  It  can't  be  said  that  la  Peyrade  has  lost 
much  time  in  getting  installed  —  forgive  the  pun  —  at 
the  Thuilleries.  The  scamp  has  made  his  way  pretty 
fast,  you  must  own  that." 

"Not  so  fast  but  what  his  marriage,"  said  Cerizet,  "is 
at  the  present  moment  a  very  doubtful  thing." 

"Doubtful!"  cried  Dutocq;  "  why  doubtful  ?  " 

"  Well,  I  am  commissioned  to  propose  to  him  another 
wife,  and  I  'm  not  sure  that  any  choice  is  left  to  him." 

"What  the  devil  are  you  about,  my  dear  fellow,  lend- 
ing your  hand  in  this  way  to  another  marriage  when  you 
know  we  have  a  mortgage  on  the  first?  " 

"One  is  n't  always  master  of  circumstances,  my  friend ; 
I  saw  at  once  when  the  new  affair  was  laid  before  me 
that  the  one  we  had  settled  on  must  infallibly  go  by  the 
board.  Consequently,  I  've  tried  to  work  it  round  in  our 
interests,  yours  and  mine." 

"Ah  ga!  do. you  mean  they  are  pulling  caps  for  this 
Theodose?     Who  is  the  new  match?     Has  she  money?" 

"The  dot  is  pretty  good;  quite  as  much  as  Made- 
moiselle Colleville's." 


240  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 

"Then  I  would  n't  give  a  fig  for  it.  La  Peyrade  has 
signed  those  notes  and  he  will  pay  them." 

"Will  he  pay  them?  that's  the  question.  You  are  not 
a  business  man,  neither  is  Theodose;  it  may  come  into 
his  head  to  dispute  the  validity  of  those  notes.  What 
security  have  we  that  if  the  facts  about  their  origin  should 
come  out,  and  the  Thuillier  marriage  shouldn't  come  off, 
the  court  of  commerce  might  n't  annul  them  as  '  obliga- 
tions without  cause.'  For  my  part,  I  should  laugh  at 
such  a  decision;  I  can  stand  it;  and,  moreover,  my  pre- 
cautions are  taken;  but  you,  as  clerk  to  a  justice-of- 
peace,  don't  you  see  that  such  an  affair  would  give  the 
chancellor  a  bone  to  pick  with  you?  " 

"But,  my  good  fellow,"  said  Dutocq,  with  the  ill- 
humor  of  a  man  who  sees  himself  face  to  face  with  an 
argument  he  can't  refute,"  "you  seem  to  have  a  mania 
for  stirring  up  matters  and  meddling  with  —  " 

"I  tell  you  again,"  said  Cerizet,  "this  came  to  me;  I 
didn't  seek  it;  but  I  saw  at  once  that  there  was  no  use 
struggling  against  the  influence  that  is  opposing  us ;  so 
I  chose  the  course  of  saving  ourselves  by  a  sacrifice." 

"A  sacrifice!  what  sort  of  sacrifice?" 

"Parbleu!  I've  sold  my  share  of  those  notes,  leav- 
ing those  who  bought  them  to  fight  it  out  with  Master 
barrister." 

"Who  is  the  purchaser? 

"Who  do  you  suppose  would  step  into  my  shoes  unless 
it  were  the  persons  who  have  an  interest  in  this  other 
marriage,  and  who  want  to  hold  a  power  over  Theodose, 
and  control  him  by  force  if  necessary." 

"Then  my  share  of  the  notes  is  equally  important  to 
them  ?  " 

"No  doubt;  but  I  couldn't  speak  for  you  until  I  had 
consulted  you." 

"What  do  they  offer?" 

"Hang  it!  my  dear  fellow,  the  same  that  I  accepted. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  241 

Knowing  better  than  you  the  danger  of  their  competition 
I  sold  out  to  them  on  very  bad  terms." 

"Well,  but  what  are  they,  those  terms?  " 

"I  gave  up  my  shares  for  fifteen  thousand  francs." 

"Come,  come!"  said  Dutocq,  shrugging  his  shoulders, 
"what  you  are  after  is  to  recover  a  loss  (if  you  made  it) 
by  a  commission  on  my  share  —  and  perhaps,  after  all, 
the  whole  thing  is  only  a  plot  between  you  and  la 
Peyrade  —  " 

"At  any  rate,  my  good  friend,  you  don't  mince  your 
words ;  an  infamous  thought  comes  into  your  head  and 
you  state  it  with  charming  frankness.  Luckily  you  shall 
presently  hear  me  make  the  proposal  to  Theodose,  and 
you  are  clever  enough  to  know  by  his  manner  if  there 
has  been  any  connivance  between  us." 

"So  be  it!"  said  Dutocq.  "I  withdraw  the  insinua- 
tion ;  but  I  must  say  your  employers  are  pirates ;  I  call 
their  proposal  throttling  people.  I  have  not,  like  you, 
something  to  fall  back  upon." 

"Well,  you  poor  fellow,  this  is  how  I  reasoned:  I  said 
to  myself,  That  good  Dutocq  is  terribly  pressed  for  the 
last  payment  on  his  practice ;  this  will  give  him  enough 
to  pay  it  off  at  one  stroke ;  events  have  proved  that  there 
are  great  uncertainties  about  our  Theodose-and-Thuillier 
scheme;  here's  money  down,  live  money,  and  therefore 
it  won't  be  so  bad  a  bargain  after  all." 

"It  is  a  loss  of  two-fifths!  " 

"Come,"  said  Cerizet,  "you  were  talking  just  now  of 
commissions.  I  see  a  means  of  getting  one  for  you  if 
you  '11  engage  to  batter  down  this  Colleville  marriage. 
If  you  will  cry  it  down  as  you  have  lately  cried  it  up  I 
should  n't  despair  of  getting  you  a  round  twenty  thousand 
out  of  the  affair." 

"Then  you  think  that  this  new  proposal  will  not  be 
agreeable  to  la  Peyrade, —  that  he'll  reject  it?  Is  it  some 
heiress  on  whom  he  has  already  taken  a  mortgage  ?  " 


242  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"All  that  I  can  tell  you  is  that  these  people  expect 
some  difficulty  in  bringing  the  matter  to  a  conclusion." 

"Well,  I  don't  desire  better  than  to  follow  your  lead 
and  do  what  is  disagreeable  to  la  Peyrade;  but  five 
thousand  francs  —  think  of  it!  —  is  too  much  to  lose." 

At  this  moment  the  door  opened,  and  a  waiter  ushered 
in  the  expected  guest. 

"You  can  serve  dinner,"  said  Cerizet  to  the  waiter; 
"we  are  all  here." 

It  was  plain  that  Theodose  was  beginning  to  take 
wing  toward  higher  social  spheres ;  elegance  was  becom- 
ing a  constant  thought  in  his  mind.  He  appeared  in  a 
dress  suit  and  varnished  shoes,  whereas  his  two  associates 
received  him  in  frock-coats  and  muddy  boots. 

"Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "I  think  I  am  a  little  late,  but 
that  devil  of  a  Thuillier  is  the  most  intolerable  of  human 
beings  about  a  pamphlet  I  am  concocting  for  him.  I 
was  unlucky  enough  to  agree  to  correct  the  proofs  with 
him,  and  over  every  paragraph  there  's  a  fight.  '  What 
I  can't  understand,'  he  says,  '  the  public  can't,  either. 
I'm  not  a  man  of  letters,  but  I'm  a  practical  man;  ■ 
and  that 's  the  way  we  battle  it,  page  after  page.  I 
thought  the  sitting  this  afternoon  would  never  end." 

"How  unreasonable  you  are,  my  dear  fellow,"  said 
Dutocq;  "when  a  man  wants  to  succeed  he  must  have 
the  courage  to  make  sacrifices.  Once  married,  you  can 
lift  your  head." 

"Ah,  yes!  "  said  la  Peyrade  with  a  sigh,  "I  '11  lift  it; 
for  since  the  day  you  made  me  eat  this  bread  of  anguish 
I  've  become  terribly  sick  of  it." 

"Cerizet,"  said  Dutocq,  "has  a  plan  that  will  feed 
you  more  succulently." 

Nothing  more  was  said  at  the  moment,  for  justice  had 
to  be  done  to  the  excellent  fare  ordered  by  Cerizet  in 
honor  of  his  coming  lease.  As  usually  happens  at 
dinners   where  affairs  are  likely  to  be   discussed,  each 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  243 

man,  with  his  uiind  full  of  them,  took  pains  not  to 
approach  those  topics,  fearing  to  compromise  his  advan- 
tages by  seeming  eager;  the  conversation,  therefore,  con- 
tinued for  a  long  time  on  general  subjects,  and  it  was 
not  until  the  dessert  was  served  that  Cerizet  brought 
himself  to  ask  la  Peyrade  what  had  been  settled  about 
the  terms  of  his  lease. 

"Nothing,  my  friend,"  replied  Theodose. 

' '  What !  nothing  ?  I  certainly  allowed  you  time  enough 
to  decide  the  matter." 

"Well,  as  to  that,  something  is  decided.  There  will 
not  be  any  principal  tenant  at  all ;  Mademoiselle  Brigitte 
is  going  to  let  the  house  herself." 

"That 's  a  singular  thing,"  said  Cerizet,  stiffly.  "After 
your  agreement  with  me,  I  certainly  did  not  expect  such 
a  result  as  this." 

"How  can  I  help  it,  my  dear  fellow?  I  agreed  with 
you,  barring  amendments  on  the  other  side ;  I  was  n't 
able  to  give  another  turn  to  the  affair.  In  her  natural 
character  as  a  managing  woman  and  a  sample  of  per- 
petual motion,  Brigitte  has  reflected  that  she  might  as 
well  manage  that  house  herself  and  put  into  her  own 
pocket  the  profits  you  proposed  to  make.  I  said  all  I 
could  about  the  cares  and  annoyances  which  she  would 
certainly  saddle  upon  herself .  'Oh!  nonsense! '  she  said; 
4  they  '11  stir  my  blood  and  do  my  health  good! '  " 

"It  is  pitiable!  "  said  Cerizet.  "That  poor  old  maid 
will  never  know  which  end  to  take  hold  of;  she  does  n't 
imagine  what  it  is  to  have  an  empty  house,  and  which 
must  be  filled  with  tenants  from  garret  to  cellar." 

"I  plied  her  with  all  those  arguments,"  replied  la 
Peyrade;  "but  I  couldn't  move  her  resolution.  Don't 
you  see,  my  dear  democrats,  you  stirred  up  the  revolu- 
tion of  '89;  you  thought  to  make  a  fine  speculation  in 
dethroning  the  noble  by  the  bourgeois,  and  the  end  of 
it  is   you  are  shoved  out  yourselves.     This  looks  like 


244  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

paradox ;  but  you  've  found  out  now  that  the  peasant  and 
clodhopper  is  n't  malleable;  he  can't  be  forced  down  and 
kept  under  like  the  noble.  The  aristocracy,  on  behalf  of 
its  dignity,  would  not  condescend  to  common  cares,  and 
was  therefore  dependent  on  a  crowd  of  plebeian  servitors 
to  whom  it  had  to  trust  for  three-fourths  of  the  actions 
of  its  own  life.  That  was  the  reign  of  stewards  and 
bailiffs,  wily  fellows,  into  whose  hands  the  interests  of 
the  great  families  passed,  and  who  fed  and  grew  fat  on 
the  parings  of  the  great  fortunes  they  managed.  But 
now-a-days,  utilitarian  theories,  as  they  call  them,  have 
come  to  the  fore, — '  We  are  never  so  well  served  as 
by  ourselves,'  '  There 's  no  shame  in  attending  to 
one's  own  business,'  and  many  other  bourgeois  maxims 
which  have  suppressed  the  role  of  intermediaries.  Why 
shouldn't  Mademoiselle  Brigitte  Thuillier  manage  her 
own  house  when  dukes  and  peers  go  in  person  to  the 
Bourse,  where  such  men  sign  their  own  leases  and  read 
the  deeds  before  they  sign  them,  and  go  themselves  to 
the  notary,  whom,  in  former  days,  they  considered  a 
servant." 

During  this  tirade  Cerizet  had  time  to  recover  from 
the  blow  he  had  just  received  squarely  in  the  face,  and 
to  think  of  the  transition  he  had  to  make  from  one  set 
of  interests  to  the  other,  of  which  he  was  now  the 
agent. 

"What  you  are  declaiming  there  is  all  very  clever,"  he 
said,  carelessly,  "but  the  thing  that  proves  to  me  our 
defeat  is  the  fact  that  you  are  not  on  the  terms  with 
Mademoiselle  Thuillier  you  would  have  us  believe  you 
are.  She  is  slipping  through  your  fingers;  and  I  don't 
think  that  marriage  is  anything  like  as  certain  as  Dutocq 
and  I  have  been  fancying  it  was." 

"Well,  no  doubt,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  "there  are  still 
some  touches  to  be  given  to  our  sketch,  but  I  believe  it 
is  well  under  way." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  245 

"And  I  think,  on  the  contrary,  that  you  have  lost 
ground ;  and  the  reason  is  simple :  you  have  done  those 
people  an  immense  service;  and  that's  a  thing  never 
forgiven." 

"Well,  we  shall  see,"  said  la  Peyrade.  "I  have  more 
than  one  hold  upon  them." 

"No,  you  are  mistaken.  You  thought  you  did  a 
brilliant  thing  in  putting  them  on  a  pinnacle,  but  the 
fact  is  you  emancipated  them;  they  '11  keep  you  now  at 
heel.  The  human  heart,  particularly  the  bourgeois  heart, 
is  made  that  way.  If  I  were  in  your  place  I  should  n't 
feel  so  sure  of  being  on  solid  ground,  and  if  something 
else  turned  up  that  offered  me  a  good  chance  —  " 

"What!  just  because  I  could  u't  get  you  the  lease  of 
that  house  do  you  want  to  knock  everything  to  pieces?  " 

"No,"  said  Cerizet,  "I  am  not  looking  at  the  matter 
in  the  light  of  my  own  interests;  I  don't  doubt  that  as 
a  trustworthy  friend  you  have  done  every  imaginable 
thing  to  promote  them ;  but  I  think  the  manner  in  which 
you  have  been  shoved  aside  a  very  disturbing  symptom. 
It  even  decides  me  to  tell  you  something  I  did  not  intend 
to  speak  of;  because,  in  my  opinion,  when  persons  start 
on  a  course  they  ought  to  keep  on  steadily,  looking 
neither  forward  nor  back,  and  not  allowing  themselves 
to  be  diverted  to  other  aspirations. 

"Ahga/"  cried  la  Peyrade,  "what  does  all  this  ver- 
biage mean?  Have  you  anything  to  propose  to  me? 
What's  the  price  of  it?" 

"My  dear  Theodose,"  said  Cerizet,  paying  no  atten- 
tion to  the  impertinence,  "you  yourself  can  judge  of  the 
value  of  discovering  a  young  girl,  well  brought-up, 
adorned  with  beauty  and  talents  and  a  dot  equal  to 
that  of  Celeste,  which  she  has  in  her  own  right,  plus 
fifty  thousand  francs'  worth  of  diamonds  (as  Mademoi- 
selle Georges  says  on  her  posters  in  the  provinces),  and, 
moreover,  —  a  fact  which  ought  to  strike  the  mind  of  an 


246  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

ambitious  man,  —  a  strong  political  influence,  which  she 
can  use  for  a  husband." 

"And  this  treasure  you  hold  in  your  hand?"  said  la 
Peyrade,  in  a  tone  of  incredulity. 

"Better  still,  I  am  authorized  to  offer  it  to  you;  in 
fact,  I  might  say  that  I  am  charged  to  do  so." 

"My  friend,  you  are  poking  fun  at  me;  unless,  indeed, 
this  phoenix  has  some  hideous  or  prohibitory  defect." 

"Well,  I  '11  admit,"  said  Cerizet,  "that  there  is  a 
slight  objection,  not  on  the  score  of  family,  for,  to  tell 
the  truth,  the    young  woman  has  none  —  " 

"Ah!"  said  la  Peyrade,  "a  natural  child—  Well, 
what  next?" 

"Next,  she  is  not  so  very  young, —  something  like 
twenty-nine  or  so;  but  there's  nothing  easier  than  to 
turn  an  elderly  girl  into  a  young  widow  if  you  have 
imagination." 

"Is  that  all  the  venom  in  it?" 

"Yes,  all  that  is  irreparable." 

"What  do  you  mean  by  that?  Is  it  a  case  of  rhino- 
plasty?" 

Addressed  to  Cerizet  the  word  had  an  aggressive  air, 
which,  in  fact,  was  noticeable  since  the  beginning  of 
the  dinner  in  the  whole  manner  and  conversation  of  the 
barrister.  But  it  did  not  suit  the  purpose  of  the  nego- 
tiator to  resent  it. 

"No,"  he  replied,  "our  nose  is  as  well  made  as  our 
foot  and  our  waist;  but  we  may,  perhaps,  have  a  slight 
touch  of  hysteria." 

"Oh!  very  good,"  said  la  Peyrade;  "and  as  from 
hysteria  to  insanity  there  is  but  a  step  —  " 

"Well,  yes,"  interrupted  Cerizet,  hastily,  "sorrows 
have  affected  our  brain  slightly;  but  the  doctors  are 
unanimous  in  their  diagnosis;  they  all  say  that  after  the 
birth  of  the  first  child  not  a  trace  will  remain  of  this 
little  trouble." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  247 

"I  am  willing  to  admit  that  doctors  are  infallible," 
replied  la  Peyrade;  "but,  in  spite  of  your  discourage- 
ment, you  must  allow  me,  my  friend,  to  persist  in  my 
suit  to  Mademoiselle  Colleville.  Perhaps  it  is  ridicu- 
lous to  confess  it,  but  the  truth  is  I  am  gradually  falling 
in  love  with  that  little  girl.  It  is  n't  that  her  beauty  is 
resplendent,  or  that  the  glitter  of  her  dot  has  dazzled 
me,  but  I  find  in  that  child  a  great  fund  of  sound  sense 
joined  to  simplicity ;  and,  what  to  my  mind  is  of  greater 
consequence,  her  sincere  and  solid  piety  attracts  me ;  I 
think  a  husband  ought  to  be  very  happy  with  her." 

"Yes,"  said  Cerizet,  who,  having  been  on  the  stage, 
may  very  well  have  known  his  Moliere,  "this  marriage 
will  crown  your  wishes  with  all  good;  it  will  be  filled 
with  sweetness  and  with  pleasures." 

The  allusion  to  Tartuffe  was  keenly  felt  by  la  Peyrade, 
who  took  it  up  and  said,  hotly :  — 

"The  contact  with  innocence  will  disinfect  me  of  the 
vile  atmosphere  in  which  I  have  lived  too  long." 

"And  you  will  pay  your  notes  of  hand,"  added  Cerizet, 
"which  I  advise  you  to  do  with  the  least  possible  delay; 
for  Dutocq  here  was  saying  to  me  just  now  that  he  would 
like  to  see  the  color  of  your  money." 

"I?  not  at  all,"  interposed  Dutocq.  "I  think,  on 
the  contrary,  that  our  friend  has  a  right  to  the  delay." 

"Well,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "I  agree  with  Cerizet.  "I 
hold  that  the  less  a  debt  is  due,  and  therefore  the  more 
insecure  and  open  to  contention  it  is,  the  sooner  one 
ought  to  free  one's  self  by  paying  it." 

"But,  my  dear  la  Peyrade,"  said  Dutocq,  "why  take 
this  bitter  tone?" 

Pulling  from  his  pocket  a  portfolio,  la  Peyrade 
said:  — 

"Have  you  those  notes  with  you,  Dutocq?" 

"Faith!  no,  my  dear  fellow,"  replied  Dutocq,  "I 
don't  carry  them  about  with  me;  besides,  they  are  in 
Cerizet' s  hands." 


248  The  Leaner  Bourgeoisie. 

"Well,"  said  the  barrister,  rising,  "whenever  you 
come  to  my  house  I  '11  pay  you  on  the  nail,  as  Cerizet 
can  tell  you." 

"What!  are  you  going  to  leave  us  without  your 
coffee  ?  "  said  Cerizet,  amazed  to  the  last  degree. 

"Yes;  I  have  an  arbitration  case  at  eight  o'clock. 
Besides,  we  have  said  all  we  had  to  say.  You  haven't 
your  lease,  but  you  've  got  your  twenty-five  thousand 
francs  in  full,  and  those  of  Dutocq  are  ready  for  him 
whenever  he  chooses  to  come  to  my  office.  I  see  noth- 
ing now  to  prevent  me  from  going  where  my  private 
business  calls  me,  and  I  therefore  very  cordially  bid  you 
good-bye." 

"Ah  ga!  Dutocq,"  cried  Cerizet,  as  la  Peyrade  dis- 
appeared, "this  means  a  rupture." 

"Prepared  with  the  utmost  care,"  added  Dutocq. 
"Did  you  notice  the  air  with  which  he  pulled  out  that 
pocket-book  ?  " 

"But  where  the  devil,"  said  the  usurer,  "could  he  have 
got  the  money  ?  " 

"Probably,"  replied  Dutocq,  sarcastically,  "where  he 
got  that  with  which  he  paid  you  in  full  for  those  notes 
you  sold  at  a  sacrifice." 

"My  dear  Dutocq,"  said  Cerizet,  "I  '11  explain  to  you 
the  circumstances  under  which  that  insolent  fellow  freed 
himself,  and  you  '11  see  if  he  did  n't  rob  me  of  fifteen 
thousand  francs." 

"Possibly,  but  you,  my  worthy  clerk,  were  trying  to 
get  ten  thousand  away  from  me." 

"No,  no;  I  was  positively  ordered  to  buy  up  your 
claim;  and  you  ought  to  remember  that  my  offer  had 
risen  to  twenty  thousand  when  Theodose  came  in." 

"Well,"  said  Dutocq,  "when  we  leave  here  we  '11  go  to 
your  house,  where  you  will  give  me  those  notes;  for, 
you  '11  understand  that  to-morrow  morning,  at  the 
earliest  decent  hour,  I  shall  go  to  la  Peyrade's  office;  I 
don't  mean  to  let  his  paying  humor  cool." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  249 

"And  right  you  are;  for  I  can  tell  you  now  that  before 
long  there  '11  be  a  fine  upset  in  his  life." 

"Then  the  thing  is  really  serious  —  this  tale  of  a 
crazy  woman  you  want  him  to  marry?  I  must  say  that 
in  his  place,  with  these  money-matters  evidently  on  the 
rise,  I  should  have  backed  out  of  your  proposals  just  as 
he  did.  Ninas  and  Ophelias  are  all  very  well  on  the 
stage,  but  in  a  home  —  " 

"In  a  home,  when  they  bring  a  dot,  we  can  be  their 
guardian,"  replied  Cerizet,  sententiously.  "In  point  of 
fact,  we  get  a  fortune  and  not  a  wife." 

"Well,"  said  Dutocq,  "that's  one  way  to  look  at  it." 

"If  you  are  willing,"  said  Cerizet,  "let  us  go  and  take 
our  coffee  somewhere  else.  This  dinner  has  turned  out 
so  foolishly  that  I  want  to  get  out  of  this  room,  where 
there's  no  air."  He  rang  for  the  waiter.  "Garcon!" 
he  said,  "the  bill." 

"Monsieur,  it  is  paid." 

"Paid!  by  whom?" 

"By  the  gentleman  who  just  went  out." 

"But  this  is  outrageous,"  cried  Cerizet.  "I  ordered 
the  dinner,  and  you  allow  some  one  else  to  pay  for  it!  " 

"It  wasn't  I,  monsieur,"  said  the  waiter;  "the  gentle- 
man went  and  paid  the  dame  du  comptoir;  she  must  have 
thought  it  was  arranged  between  you.  Besides,  it  is  not 
so  uncommon  for  gentlemen  to  have  friendly  disputes 
about  paying." 

"That 's  enough,"  said  Cerizet,  dismissing  the  waiter. 

"Won't  these  gentlemen  take  their  coffee?  —  it  is  paid 
for,"  said  the  man  before  he  left  the  room. 

"A  good  reason  for  not  taking  it,"  replied  Cerizet, 
angrily.  "It  is  really  inconceivable  that  in  a  house  of 
this  kind  such  an  egregious  blunder  should  be  com- 
mitted. What  do  you  think  of  such  insolence?"  he 
added,  when  the  waiter  had  left  the  room. 

"Bah!"  exclaimed  Dutocq,  taking  his  hat,  "it  is  a 


250  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

schoolboy  proceeding;  he  wanted  to  show  he  had  money; 
it  is  easy  to  see  he  never  had  any  before." 

"No,  no!  that's  not  it,"  said  Cerizet;  "he  meant  to 
mark  the  rupture.  4I  will  not  owe  you  even  a  dinner,' 
is  what  he  says  to  me." 

"But,  after  all,"  said  Dutocq,  "this  banquet  was  given 
to  celebrate  your  enthronement  as  principal  tenant  of  the 
grand  house.  Well,  he  failed  to  get  you  the  lease,  and 
I  can  understand  that  his  conscience  was  uneasy  at  let- 
ting you  pay  for  a  dinner  which,  like  those  notes  of 
mine,  were  an  *  obligation  without  cause.'  " 

Cerizet  made  no  reply  to  this  malicious  observation. 
They  had  reached  the  counter  where  reigned  the  dame 
who  had  permitted  the  improper  payment,  and,  for  the 
sake  of  his  dignity,  the  usurer  thought  it  proper  to  make 
a  fuss.  After  which  the  two  men  departed,  and  the 
copying-clerk  took  his  employer  to  a  low  coffee-house 
in  the  Passage  du  Saumon.  There  Cerizet  recovered  his 
good-humor;  he  was  like  a  fish  out  of  water  suddenly 
returned  to  his  native  element;  for  he  had  reached  that 
state  of  degradation  when  he  felt  ill  at  ease  in  places 
frequented  by  good  society;  and  it  was  with  a  sort  of 
sensuous  pleasure  that  he  found  himself  back  in  the  vul- 
gar place  where  they  were  noisily  playing  pool  for  the 
benefit  of  a  "former  conqueror  of  the  Bastille." 

In  this  establishment  Cerizet  enjoyed  the  fame  of 
being  a  skilful  billiard-player,  and  he  was  now  entreated 
to  take  part  in  a  game  already  begun.  In  technical  lan- 
guage, he  "bought  his  ball;"  that  is,  one  of  the  players 
sold  him  his  turn  and  his  chances.  Dutocq  profited  by 
this  arrangement  to  slip  away,  on  pretence  of  inquiring 
for  a  sick  friend. 

Presently,  in  his  shirt-sleeves,  with  a  pipe  between  his 
lips,  Cerizet  made  one  of  those  masterly  strokes  which 
bring  down  the  house  with  frantic  applause.  As  he 
waited  a  moment,  looking  about  him  triumphantly,  his 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  251 

eye  lighted  on  a  terrible  kill-joy.  Standing  among  the 
spectators  with  his  chin  on  his  cane,  du  Portail  was 
steadily  watching  him. 

A  tinge  of  red  showed  itself  in  Cerizet' s  cheeks.  He 
hesitated  to  bow  or  to  recognize  the  old  gentleman,  a 
most  unlikely  person  to  meet  in  such  a  place.  Not 
knowing  how  to  take  the  unpleasant  encounter,  he  went 
on  playing;  but  his  hand  betrayed  his  uneasiness,  and 
presently  an  unlucky  stroke  threw  him  out  of  the  game. 
While  he  was  putting  on  his  coat  in  a  tolerably  ill- 
humor,  du  Portail  passed,  almost  brushing  him,  on  his 
way  to  the  door. 

"Rue  Montmartre,  at  the  farther  end  of  the  Passage," 
said  the  old  man,  in  a  low  voice. 

When  they  met,  Cerizet  had  the  bad  taste  to  try  to 
explain  the  disreputable  position  in  which  he  had  just 
been  detected. 

"But,"  said  du  Portail,  "in  order  to  see  you  there,  I 
had  to  be  there  myself." 

"True,"  returned  Cerizet.  "I  was  rather  surprised  to 
see  a  quiet  inhabitant  of  the  Saint-Sulpice  quarter  in  such 
a  place. 

"It  merely  proves  to  you,"  said  the  little  old  man,  in 
a  tone  which  cut  short  all  explanation,  and  all  curiosity, 
"that  I  am  in  the  habit  of  going  pretty  nearly  every- 
where, and  that  my  star  leads  me  into  the  path  of  those 
persons  whom  I  wish  to  meet.  I  was  thinking  of  you 
at  the  very  moment  you  came  in.  Well,  what  have  you 
done  ?  " 

"Nothing  good,"  replied  Cerizet.  "After  playing  me 
a  devilish  trick  which  deprived  me  of  a  magnificent  bit 
of  business,  our  man  rejected  your  overture  with  scorn. 
There  is  no  hope  whatever  in  that  claim  of  Dutocq's; 
for  la  Peyrade  is  chock-full  of  money;  he  wanted  to 
pay  the  notes  just  now,  and  to-morrow  morning  he  will 
certainly  do  so." 


252  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Does  he  regard  his  marriage  to  this  Demoiselle 
Colleville  as  a  settled  thing  ?  " 

"He  not  only  considers  it  settled,  but  he  is  trying  now 
to  make  people  believe  it  is  a  love-match.  He  rattled 
off  a  perfect  tirade  to  convince  me  that  he  is  really  in 
love." 

"Very  well,"  said  du  Portail,  wishing,  perhaps,  to 
show  that  he  could,  on  occasion,  use  the  slang  of  a  low 
billiard-room,  "  4  stop  the  charge  '  "  (meaning:  Do  noth- 
ing more) ;  "I  will  undertake  to  bring  monsieur  to  reason. 
But  come  and  see  me  to-morrow,  and  tell  me  all  about 
the  family  he  intends  to  enter.  You  have  failed  in  this 
affair;  but  don't  mind  that;  I  shall  have  others  for 
you." 

So  saying,  he  signed  to  the  driver  of  an  empty  cita- 
dine,  which  was  passing,  got  into  it,  and,  with  a  nod 
to  Cerizet,  told  the  man  to  drive  to  the  rue  Honore- 
Chevalier. 

As  Cerizet  walked  down  the  rue  Montmartre  to  regain 
the  Estrapade  quarter,  he  puzzled  his  brains  to  divine 
who  that  little  old.  man  with  the  curt  speech,  the  imperi- 
ous manner,  and  a  tone  that  seemed  to  cast  upon  all 
those  with  whom  he  spoke  a  boarding-grapnel,  could  be; 
a  man,  too,  who  came  from  such  a  distance  to  spend  his 
evening  in  a  place  where,  judging  by  his  clothes  alone, 
he  had  no  business  to  be. 

Cerizet  had  reached  the  Market  without  finding  any 
solution  to  that  problem,  when  he  was  roughly  shaken  out 
of  it  by  a  heavy  blow  in  the  back.  Turning  hastily,  he 
found  himself  in  presence  of  Madame  Cardinal,  an  en- 
counter with  whom,  at  a  spot  where  she  came  every  morn- 
ing to  get  fish  to  peddle,  was  certainly  not  surprising. 

Since  that  evening  in  Toupillier's  garret,  the  worthy 
woman,  in  spite  of  the  clemency  so  promptly  shown  to 
her,  had  judged  it  imprudent  to  make  other  than  very 
short  apparitions  in  her  own  domicile,  and  for  the  last 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  253 

two  days  she  had  been  drowning  among  the  liquor-dealers 
(called  "retailers  of  comfort")  the  pangs  of  her  defeat. 
With  flaming  face  and  thickened  voice  she  now  addressed 
her  late  accomplice:  — 

"Well,  papa,"  she  said,  "what  happened  after  I  left 
you  with  that  little  old  fellow?  " 

"I  made  him  understand  in  a  very  few  words,"  replied 
the  banker  of  the  poor,  "that  it  was  all  a  mistake  as 
to  me.  In  this  affair,  my  dear  Madame  Cardinal,  you 
behaved  with  a  really  unpardonable  heedlessness.  How 
came  you  to  ask  my  assistance  in  obtaining  your  inheri- 
tance from  your  uncle,  when  with  proper  inquiry  you 
might  have  known  there  was  a  natural  daughter,  in 
whose  favor  he  had  long  declared  he  should  make  a 
will?  That  little  old  man,  who  interrupted  you  in  your 
foolish  attempt  to  anticipate  your  legacy,  was  no  other 
than  the  guardian  of  the  daughter  to  whom  everything  is 
left." 

"Ha!  guardian,  indeed!  a  fine  thing,  guardian!  "  cried 
the  Cardinal.  "To  talk  to  a  woman  of  my  age,  just 
because  I  wanted  to  see  if  my  uncle  owned  anything  at 
all,  to  talk  to  me  of  the  police !  It 's  hateful !  it 's 
disgusting  !  " 

"Come,  come!  "  said  Cerizet,  "you  needn't  complain; 
you  got  off  cheaply." 

"Well,  and  you,  who  broke  the  locks  and  said  you 
were  going  to  take  the  diamonds,  under  color  of  marry- 
ing my  daughter!  Just  as  if  she  would  have  you, — a 
legitimate  daughter  like  her!  '  Never,  mother,'  said 
she ;  '  never  will  I  give  my  heart  to  a  man  with  such  a 
nose.' " 

"So  you've  found  her,  have  you?"  said  Cerizet. 

"Not  until  last  night.  She  has  left  her  blackguard  of 
a  player,  and  she  is  now,  I  flatter  myself,  in  a  fine  posi- 
tion, eating  money ;  has  her  citadine  by  the  month,  and 
is  much  respected  by  a  barrister  who  would  marry  her 


254  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 

at  once,  but  he  has  got  to  wait  till  his  parents  die;  for 
the  father  happens  to  be  mayor,  and  the  government 
wouldn't  like  it." 

"What  mayor?" 

"11th  arrondissement,  — Minard,  powerfully  rich,  used 
to  do  a  business  in  cocoa." 

"Ah!  very  good!  very  good!  I  know  all  about  him. 
You  say  Olympe  is  living  with  his  son?  " 

"  Well,  not  to  say  living  together,  for  that  would  make 
talk,  though  he  only  sees  her  with  good  motives.  He 
lives  at  home  with  his  father,  but  he  has  bought  their 
furniture,  and  has  put  it,  and  my  daughter,  too,  into  a 
lodging  in  the  Chaussee  d'Antin;  stylish  quarter,  isn't 
it?" 

"It  seems  to  me  pretty  well  arranged,"  said  Cerizet; 
"and  as  Heaven,  it  appears,  didn't  destine  us  for  each 
other  —  " 

"No,  yes,  well,  that's  how  it  was;  and  I  think  that 
girl  is  going  to  give  me  great  satisfaction;  and  there  's 
something  I  want  to  consult  you  about." 

"What?"  demanded  Cerizet. 

"Well,  my  daughter  being  in  luck,  I  don't  think  I 
ought  to  continue  to  cry  fish  in  the  streets;  and  now 
that  my  uncle  has  disinherited  me,  I  have,  it  seems  to 
me,  a  right  to  an  elementary  allowance." 

"You  are  dreaming,  my  poor  woman;  your  daughter 
is  a  minor;  it  is  you  who  ought  to  be  feeding  her;  the 
law  doesn't  require  her  to  give  you  aliment." 

"Then  do  you  mean,"  said  Madame  Cardinal,  "that 
those  who  have  nothing  are  to  give  to  those  who  have 
much?  A  fine  thing  such  a  law  as  that!  It 's  as  bad  as 
guardians  who,  for  nothing  at  all,  talk  about  calling  the 
police.  Yes !  I  'd  like  to  see  'em  calling  the  police  to 
me!  Let  'em  guillotine  me!  It  won't  prevent  my  say- 
ing that  the  rich  are  swindlers ;  yes,  swindlers !  and  the 
people   ought  to  make  another  revolution  to  get  their 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  255 

rights;  and  then,  my  lad,  you,  and  my  daughter,  and 
barrister  Minard,  and  that  little  old  guardian,  you  '11  all 
come  down  under  it  —  " 

Perceiving  that  his  ex-mother-in-law  was  reaching  a 
stage  of  exaltation  that  was  not  unalarming,  Cerizet 
hastened  to  get  away,  her  epithets  pursuing  him  for  more 
than  a  hundred  feet;  but  he  comforted  himself  by  think- 
ing that  he  would  make  her  pay  for  them  the  next  time 


256  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 


XVIII. 

SET   A    SAINT   TO    CATCH    A    SAINT. 

As  he  approached  his  own  abode,  Cerizet,  who  was 
nothing  so  little  as  courageous,  felt  an  emotion  of  fear. 
He  perceived  a  form  ambushed  near  the  door,  which,  as 
he  came  nearer,  detached  itself  as  if  to  meet  him. 
Happily,  it  was  only  Dutocq.  He  came  for  his  notes. 
Cerizet  returned  them  in  some  ill-humor,  complaining  of 
the  distrust  implied  in  a  visit  at  such  an  hour.  Dutocq 
paid  no  attention  to  this  sensitiveness,  and  the  next 
morning,  very  early,  he  presented  himself  at  laPeyrade's. 

La  Peyrade  paid,  as  he  had  promised,  on  the  nail,  and 
to  a  few  sentimental  remarks  uttered  by  Dutocq  as  soon 
as  the  money  was  in  his  pocket,  he  answered  with  marked 
coldness.  His  whole  external  appearance  and  behavior 
was  that  of  a  slave  who  has  burst  his  chain  and  has 
promised  himself  not  to  make  a  gospel  use  of  his 
liberty. 

As  he  conducted  his  visitor  to  the  door,  the  latter  came 
face  to  face  with  a  woman  in  servant's  dress,  who  was 
just  about  to  ring  the  bell.  This  woman  was,  apparently, 
known  to  Dutocq,  for  he  said  to  her:  — 

4 'Ha  ha!  little  woman;  so  we  feel  the  necessity  of 
consulting  a  barrister?  You  are  right;  at  the  family 
council  very  serious  matters  were  brought  up  against 
you." 

"Thank  God,  I  fear  no  one.  I  can  walk  with  my  head 
up,"  said  the  person  thus  addressed. 

"So  much  the  better  for  you,"  replied  the  clerk  of  the 
justice-of -peace;  "but  you  will  probably  be  summoned 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  257 

before  the  judge  who  examines  the  affair.  At  any  rate, 
you  are  in  good  hands  here;  and  my  friend  la  Peyrade 
will  advise  you  for  the  best." 

"Monsieur  is  mistaken,"  said  the  woman;  "it  is  not 
for  what  he  thinks  that  I  have  come  to  consult  a  lawyer." 

"Well,  be  careful  what  you  say  and  do,  my  dear 
woman,  for  I  warn  you  you  are  going  to  be  finely  picked 
to  pieces.  The  relations  are  furious  against  you,  and 
you  can't  get  the  idea  out  of  their  heads  that  you  have 
got  a  great  deal  of  money." 

While  speaking  thus,  Dutocq  kept  his  eye  on  Theo- 
dose,  who  bore  the  look  uneasily,  and  requested  his 
client  to  enter. 

Here  follows  a  scene  which  had  taken  place  the  pre- 
vious afternoon  between  this  woman  and  la  Peyrade. 

La  Peyrade,  we  may  remember,  was  in  the  habit  of 
going  to  early  mass  at  his  parish  church.  For  some 
little  time  he  had  felt  himself  the  object  of  a  singu- 
lar attention  which  he  could  not  explain  on  the  part  of 
the  woman  whom  we  have  just  seen  entering  his  office, 
who  daily  attended  the  church  at,  as  Dorine  says,  his 
"special  hour."  Could  it  be  for  love?  That  explana- 
tion was  scarcely  compatible  with  the  maturity  and  the 
saintly,  beatific  air  of  this  person,  who,  beneath  a  plain 
cap,  called  a  la  Janseniste,  by  which  fervent  female 
souls  of  that  sect  were  recognized,  affected,  like  a  nun, 
to  hide  her  hair.  On  the  other  hand,  the  rest  of  her 
clothing  was  of  a  neatness  that  was  almost  dainty,  and 
the  gold  cross  at  her  throat,  suspended  by  a  black  velvet 
ribbon,  excluded  the  idea  of  humble  and  hesitating 
mendicity. 

The  morning  of  the  day  on  which  the  dinner  at  the 
Rocher  de  Cancale  was  to  take  place,  la  Peyrade,  weary 
of  a  performance  which  had  ended  by  preoccupying  his 
mind,  went  up  to  the  woman  and  asked  her  pointblank 
if  she  had  any  request  to  make  of  him. 

17 


258  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

" Monsieur,"  she  answered,  in  a  tone  of  solemnity, 
"is,  I  think,  the  celebrated  Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade,  the 
advocate  of  the  poor  ?  " 

"I  am  la  Peyrade;  and  I  have  had,  it  is  true,  an 
opportunity  to  render  services  to  the  indigent  persons  of 
this  quarter." 

"Would  it,  then,  be  asking  too  much  of  monsieur's 
goodness  that  he  should  suffer  me  to  consult  him?  " 

"This  place,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  "is  not  well  chosen 
for  such  consultation.  What  you  have  to  say  to  me 
seems  important,  to  judge  by  the  length  of  time  you  have 
been  hesitating  to  speak  to  me.  I  live  near  here,  rue 
Saint-Dominique  d'Enfer,  and  if  you  will  take  the  trouble 
to  come  to  my  office  —  " 

"It  will  not  annoy  monsieur?  " 

"Not  in  the  least;  my  business  is  to  hear  clients." 

"At  what  hour  —  lest  I  disturb  monsieur  —  ?  " 

"When  you  choose;  I  shall  be  at  home  all  the 
morning." 

"Then  I  will  hear  another  mass,  at  which  I  can  take 
the  communion.  I  did  not  dare  to  do  so  at  this  mass, 
for  the  thought  of  speaking  to  monsieur  so  distracted  my 
mind.  I  will  be  at  monsieur's  house  by  eight  o'clock, 
when  I  have  ended  my  meditation,  if  that  hour  does  not 
inconvenience  him." 

"No;  but  there  is  no  necessity  for  all  this  ceremony," 
replied  la  Peyrade,  with  some  impatience. 

Perhaps  a  little  professional  jealousy  inspired  his  ill- 
humor,  for  it  was  evident  that  he  had  to  do  with  an 
antagonist  who  was  capable  of  giving  him  points. 

At  the  hour  appointed,  not  a  minute  before  nor  a  minute 
after,  the  pious  woman  rang  the  bell,  and  the  barrister 
having,  not  without  some  difficulty,  induced  her  to  sit 
down,  he  requested  her  to  state  her  case.  She  was  then 
seized  with  that  delaying  little  cough  with  which  we 
obtain  a  respite  when  brought  face  to  face  with  a  diffi- 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  259 

cult  subject.  At  last,  however,  she  compelled  herself  to 
approach  the  object  of  her  visit. 

"It  is  to  ask  monsieur,"  she  said,  "if  he  would  be  so 
very  good  as  to  inform  me  whether  it  is  true  that  a  char- 
itable gentleman,  now  deceased,  has  bequeathed  a  fund 
to  reward  domestic  servants  who  are  faithful  to  their 
masters." 

"Yes,"  replied  la  Peyrade;  "that  is  to  say,  Monsieur 
de  Montyon  founded  i  prizes  for  virtue/  which  are  fre- 
quently given  to  zealous  and  exemplary  domestic  ser- 
vants. But  ordinary  good  conduct  is  not  sufficient; 
there  must  be  some  act  or  acts  of  great  devotion,  and 
truly  Christian  self-abnegation." 

"Religion  enjoins  humility  upon  us,"  replied  the  pious 
woman,  "and  therefore  I  dare  not  praise  myself;  but 
inasmuch  as  for  the  last  twenty  years  I  have  lived  in 
the  service  of  an  old  man  of  the  dullest  description,  a 
savant,  who  has  wasted  his  substance  on  inventions,  so 
that  I  myself  have  had  to  feed  and  clothe  him,  persons 
have  thought  that  I  am  not  altogether  undeserving  of 
that  prize." 

"It  is  certainly  under  such  conditions  that  the  Acad- 
emy selects  its  candidates,"  said  la  Peyrade.  "What  is 
your  master's  name?" 

"Pere  Picot;  he  is  never  called  otherwise  in  our  quar- 
ter; sometimes  he  goes  out  into  the  streets  as  if  dressed 
for  the  carnival,  and  all  the  little  children  crowd  about 
him,  calling  out:  f  How  d'  ye  do,  Pere  Picot!  Good- 
morning,  Pere  Picot!  '  But  that's  how  it  is;  he  takes 
no  care  of  his  dignity;  he  goes  about  full  of  his  own 
ideas ;  and  though  I  kill  myself  with  trying  to  give  him 
appetizing  food,  if  you  ask  him  what  he  has  had  for 
his  dinner  he  can't  tell  you.  Yet  he's  a  man  full  of 
ability,  and  he  has  taught  good  pupils.  Perhaps  mon- 
sieur knows  young  Phellion,  a  professor  in  the  College 
of  Saint-Louis ;  he  was  one  of  his  scholars,  and  he  comes 
to  see  him  very  often." 


260  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Then,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "your  master  is  a  mathe- 
matician?" 

"Yes,  monsieur;  mathematics  have  been  his  bane; 
they  have  flung  him  into  a  set  of  ideas  which  don't  seem 
to  have  any  common-sense  in  them  ever  since  he  has 
been  employed  at  the  Observatory,  near  here." 

"Well,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "you  must  bring  testimony 
proving  your  long  devotion  to  this  old  man,  and  I  will 
then  draw  up  a  memorial  to  the  Academy  and  take  the 
necessary  steps  to  present  it." 

"How  good  monsieur  is!"  said  the  pious  woman, 
clasping  her  hands;  "and  if  he  would  also  let  me  tell 
him  of  a  little  difficulty  —  " 

"What  is  it?" 

"They  tell  me,  monsieur,  that  to  get  this  prize  persons 
must  be  really  very  poor." 

"Not  exactly;  still,  the  Academy  does  endeavor  to 
choose  those  who  are  in  straitened  circumstances,  and 
who  have  made  sacrifies  too  heavy  for  their  means." 

"Sacrifices!  I  think  I  may  indeed  say  I  have  made 
sacrifices,  for  the  little  property  I  inherited  from  my 
parents  has  all  been  spent  in  keeping  the  old  man,  and 
for  fifteen  years  I  have  had  no  wages,  which,  at  three 
hundred  francs  a  year  and  compound  interest,  amount 
now  to  a  pretty  little  sum ;  as  monsieur,  I  am  sure,  will 
agree." 

At  the  words  "compound  interest,"  which  evidenced  a 
certain  amount  of  financial  culture,  la  Peyrade  looked  at 
this  Antigone  with  increased  attention. 

"In  short,"  he  said,  "your  difficulty  is  —  " 

"Monsieur  will  not  think  it  strange,"  replied  the 
saintly  person,  "that  a  very  rich  uncle  dying  in  England, 
who  had  never  done  anything  for  his  family  in  his  life- 
time, should  have  left  me  twenty-five  thousand  francs." 

"Certainly,"  said  the  barrister,  "there  's  nothing  in 
that  but  what  is  perfectly  natural  and  proper." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  261 

"But,  monsieur,  I  have  been  told  that  the  possession 
of  this  money  will  prevent  the  judges  from  considering 
my  claims  to  the  prize." 

"Possibly;  because  seeing  you  in  possession  of  a  little 
competence,  the  sacrifices  which  you  apparently  intend  to 
continue  in  favor  of  your  master  will  be  less  meritorious." 

"I  shall  never  abandon  him,  poor,  dear  man,  in  spite 
of  his  faults,  though  I  know  that  this  poor  little  legacy 
which  Heaven  has  given  me  is  in  the  greatest  danger 
from  him." 

"How  so?"  asked  la  Peyrade,  with  some  curiosity. 

"Eh!  monsieur,  let  him  only  get  wind  of  that  money, 
and  he  'd  snap  it  up  at  a  mouthful ;  it  would  all  go  into 
his  inventions  of  perpetual  motion  and  other  machines 
of  various  kinds  which  have  already  ruined  him,  and 
me,  too." 

"Then,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "your  desire  is  that  this 
legacy  should  remain  completely  unknown,  not  only  to 
your  master  but  to  the  judges  of  the  Academy?  " 

"How  clever  monsieur  is,  and  how  well  he  understands 
things !  "  she  replied,  smiling. 

"And  also,"  continued  the  barrister,  "you  don't  want 
to  keep  that  money  openly  in  your  possession?  " 

"  For  fear  my  master  should  find  it  out  and  get  it  away 
from  me?  Exactly.  Besides,  as  monsieur  will  under- 
stand, I  should  n't  be  sorry,  in  order  to  supply  the  poor 
dear  man  with  extra  comforts,  that  the  sum  should  bear 
interest." 

"And  the  highest  possible  interest,"  said  the  barrister. 

"Oh!  as  for  that,  monsieur,  five  or  six  per  cent." 

"Very  good;  then  it  is  not  only  about  the  memorial 
to  the  Academy  for  the  prize  of  virtue,  but  also  about 
an  investment  of  your  legacy  that  you  have  so  long  been 
desirous  of  consulting  me?" 

"Monsieur  is  so  kind,  so  charitable,  so  encouraging!  " 

"The  memorial,  after   I  have  made  a  few  inquiries, 


262  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

will  be  easy  enough;  but  an  investment,  offering  good 
security,  the  secret  of  which  you  desire  to  keep,  is 
much  less  readily  obtained." 

"Ah!  if  I  dared  to  —  "said  the  pious  woman,  humbly. 

"What?"  asked  la  Peyrade. 

"Monsieur  understands  me?  " 

"I?  not  the  least  in  the  world." 

"And  yet  I  prayed  earnestly  just  now  that  monsieur 
might  be  willing  to  keep  this  money  for  me.  I  should 
feel  such  confidence  if  it  were  in  his  hands ;  I  know  he 
would  return  it  to  me,  and  never  speak  of  it." 

La  Peyrade  gathered,  at  this  instant,  the  fruit  of  his 
comedy  of  legal  devotion  to  the  necessitous  classes. 
The  choir  of  porters  chanting  his  praises  to  the  skies 
could  alone  have  inspired  this  servant-woman  with  the 
boundless  confidence  of  which  he  found  himself  the 
object.  His  thoughts  reverted  instantly  to  Dutocq  and 
his  notes,  and  he  was  not  far  from  thinking  that  this 
woman  had  been  sent  to  him  by  Providence.  But  the 
more  he  was  inclined  to  profit  by  this  chance  to  win  his 
independence,  the  more  he  felt  the  necessity  of  seeming 
to  yield  only  to  her  importunity ;  consequently  his  objec- 
tions were  many. 

Moreover,  he  had  no  great  belief  in  the  character  of 
his  client,  and  did  not  care,  as  the  common  saying  is,  to 
uncover  Saint  Peter  to  cover  Saint  Paul ;  in  other  words, 
to  substitute  for  a  creditor  who,  after  all,  was  his  accom- 
plice, a  woman  who  might  at  any  time  become  exacting 
and  insist  on  repayment  in  some  public  manner  that 
would  injure  his  reputation.  He  decided,  therefore,  to 
play  the  game  with  a  high  hand. 

"My  good  woman,"  he  said,  "I  am  not  in  want  of 
money,  and  I  am  not  rich  enough  to  pay  interest  on 
twenty-five  thousand  francs  for  which  I  have  no  use. 
All  that  I  can  do  for  you  is  to  place  that  sum,  in  my 
name,  with  the  notary  Dupuis.     He  is  a  religious  man ; 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  263 

you  can  see  him  every  Sunday  in  the  warden's  pew  in 
our  church.  Notaries,  you  know,  never  give  receipts, 
therefore  I  could  not  give  you  one  myself;  I  can  only 
promise  to  leave  among  my  papers,  in  case  of  death,  a 
memorandum  which  will  secure  the  restitution  of  the 
money  into  your  hands.  The  affair,  you  see,  is  one  of 
blind  confidence,  and  I  am  very  unwilling  to  make  it. 
If  I  do  so,  it  is  only  to  oblige  a  person  whose  piety  and 
the  charitable  use  she  intends  to  make  of  the  proceeds  of 
her  little  fortune  entitle  her  to  my  good-will." 

"If  monsieur  thinks  that  the  matter  cannot  be  other- 
wise arranged  —  " 

"This  appears  to  me  the  only  possible  way,"  said 
la  Peyrade.  "I  shall  hope  to  get  you  six  per  cent 
interest,  and  you  may  rely  that  it  will  be  paid  with  the 
utmost  regularity.  But  remember,  six  months,  or  even 
a  year,  may  elapse  before  the  notary  will  be  in  a  posi- 
tion to  repay  this  money,  because  notaries  invest  such 
trust  funds  chiefly  in  mortgages  which  require  a  certain 
time  to  mature.  Now,  when  you  have  obtained  the  prize 
for  virtue,  which,  according  to  all  appearance,  I  can 
readily  do  for  you,  there  will  be  no  reason  to  hide  your 
little  property  any  longer,  —  a  reason  which  I  fully 
understand ;  but  you  will  not  be  able  to  withdraw  it  from 
the  notary's  hands  immediately;  and  in  case  of  any  diffi- 
culty arising,  I  should  be  forced  to  explain  the  manner 
in  which  you  have  concealed  your  prosperity  from  your 
master,  to  whom  you  have  been  supposed  to  be  wholly 
devoted.  This,  as  you  will  see,  would  put  you  in  the 
position  of  falsely  professing  virtue,  and  would  do 
great  harm  to  your  reputation  for  piety." 

uOh!  monsieur,"  said  the  saintly  woman,  "can  it  be 
that  any  one  would  think  me  a  person  who  did  not  speak 
the  truth?" 

"Bless  you!  my  good  creature,  in  business  it  is  neces- 
sary to   foresee  everything.     Money  embroils  the  best 


264  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

friends,  and  leads  to  actions  they  never  foresaw.  There- 
fore reflect;  you  can  come  and  see  me  again  in  a  few 
days.  It  is  possible  that  between  now  and  then  you  will 
find  some  better  investment;  and  I  myself,  who  am 
doing  at  this  moment  a  thing  I  don't  altogether  like, 
may  have  found  other  difficulties  which  I  do  not  now 
expect." 

This  threat,  adroitly  thrown  out  as  an  afterthought, 
was  intended  to  immediately  clinch  the  matter. 

"I  have  reflected  carefully,"  said  the  pious  woman, 
"and  I  feel  sure  that  in  the  hands  of  so  religious  a  man 
as  monsieur  I  run  no  risks." 

Taking  from  her  bosom  a  little  pocket-book,  she  pulled 
out  twenty-five  bank-notes.  The  rapid  manner  in  which 
she  counted  them  was  a  revelation  to  la  Peyrade.  The 
woman  was  evidently  accustomed  to  handle  money,  and 
a  singular  idea  darted  through  his  mind. 

"Can  it  be  that  she  is  making  me  a  receiver  of  stolen 
property?  No,"  he  said  aloud,  "in  order  to  draw  up 
the  memorial  for  the  Academy,  I  must,  as  I  told  you, 
make  a  few  inquiries;  and  that  will  give  me  occasion  to 
call  upon  you.     At  what  hour  can  I  see  you  alone?  " 

"At  four  o'clock,  when  monsieur  goes  to  take  his  walk 
in  the  Luxembourg." 

"And  where  do  you  live?  " 

"Rue  du  Val-de-Grace,  No.  9." 

"Very  good;  at  four  o'clock;  and  if,  as  I  doubt  not, 
the  result  of  my  inquiry  is  favorable,  I  will  take  your 
money  then.  Otherwise,  if  there  are  not  good  grounds 
for  your  application  for  the  prize  of  virtue  there  will  be 
no  reason  why  you  should  make  a  mystery  of  your  legacy. 
You  could  then  invest  it  in  some  more  normal  manner 
than  that  I  have  suggested  to  you." 

"Oh!  how  cautious  monsieur  is!"  she  said,  with  evi- 
dent disappointment,  having  thought  the  affair  settled. 
"This  money,  God  be  thanked!  I  have  not  stolen,  and 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  265 

monsieur  can  make  what  inquiries  he  likes  about  me  in 
the  quarter." 

"It  is  quite  indispensable  that  I  should  do  so,"  said 
la  Peyrade,  dryly,  for  he  did  not  at  all  like,  under  this 
mask  of  simplicity,  the  quick  intelligence  that  penetrated 
his  thoughts.  "Without  being  a  thief,  a  woman  may 
very  well  not  be  a  Sister  of  Charity;  there's  a  wide 
margin  between  the  two  extremes." 

"As  monsieur  chooses,"  she  replied;  "he  is  doing  me 
so  great  a  service  that  I  ought  to  let  him  take  all 
precautions." 

Then,  with  a  piously  humble  bow,  she  went  away, 
taking  her  money  with  her. 

"The  devil!"  thought  la  Peyrade;  "that  woman  is 
stronger  than  I;  she  swallows  insults  with  gratitude  and 
without  the  sign  of  a  grimace!  I  have  never  yet  been 
able  to  master  myself  like  that." 

He  began  now  to  fear  that  he  had  been  too  timid,  and 
to  think  that  his  would-be  creditor  might  change  her 
mind  before  he  could  pay  her  the  visit  he  had  promised. 
But  the  harm  was  done,  and,  although  consumed  with 
anxiety  lest  he  had  lost  a  rare  chance,  he  would  have  cut 
off  a  leg  sooner  than  yield  to  his  impulse  to  go  to  to  her 
one  minute  before  the  hour  he  had  fixed.  The  informa- 
tion he  obtained  about  her  in  the  quarter  was  rather 
contradictory.  Some  said  his  client  was  a  saint;  others 
declared  her  to  be  a  sly  creature;  but,  on  the  whole, 
nothing  was  said  against  her  morality  that  deterred 
la  Peyrade  from  taking  the  piece  of  luck  she  had  offered 
him. 

When  he  met  her  at  four  o'clock  he  found  her  in  the 
same  mind. 

With  the  money  in  his  pocket  he  went  to  dine  with 
Cerizet  and  Dutocq  at  the  Rocher  de  Cancale ;  and  it  is 
to  the  various  emotions  he  had  passed  through  during 
the  day  that  we  must   attribute   the  sharp  and  ill-con- 


266  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

sidered  manner  in  which  he  conducted  his  rupture  with 
his  two  associates.  This  behavior  was  neither  that  of 
his  natural  disposition  nor  of  his  acquired  temperament; 
but  the  money  that  was  burning  in  his  pockets  had 
slightly  intoxicated  him;  its  very  touch  had  conveyed  to 
him  an  excitement  and  an  impatience  for  emancipation 
of  which  he  was  not  wholly  master.  He  flung  Cerizet 
over  in  the  matter  of  the  lease  without  so  much  as  con- 
sulting Brigitte ;  and  yet,  he  had  not  had  the  full  courage 
of  his  duplicity ;  for  he  had  laid  to  the  charge  of  the  old 
maid  a  refusal  which  was  merely  the  act  of  his  own  will, 
prompted  by  bitter  recollections  of  his  fruitless  struggles 
with  the  man  who  had  so  long  oppressed  him. 

In  short,  during  this  whole  day,  la  Peyrade  had  not 
shown  himself  the  able  and  infallible  man  that  we  have 
hitherto  seen  him.  Once  before,  when  he  carried  the 
fifteen  thousand  francs  intrusted  to  him  by  Thuillier,  he 
had  been  led  by  Cerizet  into  an  insurrectionary  proceed- 
ing which  necessitated  the  affair  of  Sauvaignou.  Per- 
haps, on  the  whole,  it  is  more  difficult  to  be  strong  under 
good  than  under  evil  fortune.  The  Farnese  Hercules, 
calm  and  in  still  repose,  expresses  more  energetically 
the  plenitude  of  muscular  power  than  a  violent  and 
agitated  Hercules  represented  in  the  over-excited  energy 
of  his  labors. 


PAET    II. 
THE    PARVENUS. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  269 


PART   II. 

THE  PARVENUS. 


PHELLION,    UNDER   A    NEW   ASPECT. 

Between  the  first  and  second  parts  of  this  history  an 
immense  event  had  taken  place  in  the  life  of  Phellion. 

There  is  no  one  who  has  not  heard  of  the  misfortunes 
of  the  Odeon,  that  fatal  theatre  which,  for  years,  ruined 
all  its  directors.  Right  or  wrong,  the  quarter  in  which 
this  dramatic  impossibility  stands  is  convinced  that  its 
prosperity  largely  depends  upon  it;  so  that  more  than 
once  the  mayor  and  the  other  authorities  of  the  arron- 
dissement  have,  with  a  courage  that  honors  them,  taken 
part  in  the  most  desperate  efforts  to  galvanize  the 
corpse. 

Now  to  meddle  with  theatrical  matters  is  one  of  the 
eternally  perennial  ambitions  of  the  lesser  bourgeoisie. 
Always,  therefore,  the  successive  saviours  of  the  Odeon 
feel  themselves  magnificently  rewarded  if  they  are  given 
ever  so  small  a  share  in  the  administration  of  that  enter- 
prise. It  was  at  some  crisis  in  its  affairs  that  Minard, 
in  his  capacity  as  mayor  of  the  11th  arrondissement,  had 
been  called  to  the  chairmanship  of  the  committee  for 
reading  plays,  with  the  power  to  join  unto  himself  as 
assistants  a  certain  number  of  the  notables  of  the  Latin 
quarter,  —  the  selection  being  left  to  him. 


270  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

We  shall  soon  know  exactly  bow  near  was  the  realiza- 
tion of  la  Peyrade's  projects  for  the  possession  of 
Celeste's  dot;  let  us  merely  say  now  that  these  projects 
in  approaching  maturity  had  inevitably  become  noised 
abroad;  and  as  this  condition  of  things  pointed,  of 
course,  to  the  exclusion  of  Minard  junior  and  also  of 
Felix  the  professor,  the  prejudice  hitherto  manifested  by 
Minard  pere  against  old  Phellion  was  transformed  into 
an  unequivocal  disposition  toward  friendly  cordiality; 
there  is  nothing  that  binds  and  soothes  like  the  feeling 
of  a  checkmate  shared  in  common.  Judged  without  the 
evil  eye  of  paternal  rivalry,  Phellion  became  to  Minard 
a  Roman  of  incorruptible  integrity  and  a  man  whose 
little  treatises  had  been  adopted  by  the  University, —  in 
other  words,  a  man  of  sound  and  tested  intellect. 

So  that  when  it  became  the  duty  of  the  mayor  to  select 
the  members  of  the  dramatic  custom-house,  of  which  he 
was  now  the  head,  he  immediately  thought  of  Phellion. 
As  for  the  great  citizen,  he  felt,  on  the  day  when  a  post 
was  offered  to  him  in  that  august  tribunal,  that  a  crown 
of  gold  had  been  placed  upon  his  brow. 

It  will  be  well  understood  that  it  was  not  lightly,  nor 
without  having  deeply  meditated,  that  a  man  of  Phellion's 
solemnity  had  accepted  the  high  and  sacred  mission 
which  was  offered  to  him.  He  said  within  himself  that 
he  was  called  upon  to  exercise  the  functions  of  a  magis- 
tracy, a  priestly  office. 

uTo  judge  of  men,"  he  replied  to  Minard,  who  was 
much  surprised  at  his  hesitation,  "is  an  alarming  task, 
but  to  judge  of  minds !  —  who  can  believe  himself  equal 
to  such  a  mission?" 

Once  more  the  family  —  that  rock  on  which  the  firmest 
resolutions  split  —  had  threatened  to  infringe  on  the 
domain  of  his  conscience.  The  thought  of  boxes  and 
tickets  of  which  the  future  member  of  the  committee 
could  dispose  in  favor  of  his  own  kin  had  excited  in  the 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  271 

household  so  eager  a  ferment  that  his  freedom  of  decision 
seemed  for  a  moment  in  danger.  But,  happily,  Brutus 
was  able  to  decide  himself  in  the  same  direction  along 
which  a  positive  uprising  of  the  whole  Phellionian  tribe 
intended  to  push  him.  From  the  observations  of  Barniol, 
his  son-in-law,  and  also  by  his  own  personal  inspiration, 
he  became  persuaded  that  by  his  vote,  always  given  to 
works  of  irreproachable  morality,  and  by  his  firm  deter- 
mination to  bar  the  way  to  all  plays  that  mothers  of 
families  could  not  take  their  daughters  to  witness,  he 
was  called  upon  to  render  the  most  signal  services  to 
morals  and  public  order.  Phellion,  to  use  his  own 
expression,  had  therefore  become  a  member  of  the  are- 
opagus  presided  over  by  Minard,  and  —  still  speaking 
as  he  spoke  —  he  was  issuing  from  the  exercise  of  his 
functions,  which  were  both  delicate  and  interesting,  when 
the  conversation  we  are  about  to  report  took  place.  A 
knowledge  of  this  conversation  is  necessary  to  an  under- 
standing of  the  ulterior  events  of  this  history,  and  it  will 
also  serve  to  put  into  relief  the  envious  instinct  which 
is  one  of  the  most  marked  traits  of  the  bourgeois 
character. 

The  session  of  the  committee  had  been  extremely 
stormy.  On  the  subject  of  a  tragedy  entitled,  "The 
Death  of  Hercules,"  the  classic  party  and  the  romantic 
party,  whom  the  mayor  had  carefully  balanced  in  the 
composition  of  his  committee,  had  nearly  approached 
the  point  of  tearing  each  other's  hair  out.  Twice 
Phellion  had  risen  to  speak,  and  his  hearers  were  aston- 
ished at  the  quantity  of  metaphors  the  speech  of  a  major 
of  the  National  Guard  could  contain  when  his  literary 
convictions  were  imperilled.  As  the  result  of  a  vote, 
victory  remained  with  the  opinions  of  which  Phellion 
was  the  eloquent  organ.  It  was  while  descending  the 
stairway  of  the  theatre  with  Minard  that  he  remarked:  — 

"We  have  done  a  good  work  this  day.     4  The  Death 


272  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 

of  Hercules '  reminded  me  of  c  The  Death  of  Hector,'  by 
the  late  Luce  de  Lancival ;  the  work  we  have  just  accepted 
sparkles  with  sublime  verses." 

"Yes,"  said  Minard,  uthe  versification  has  taste;  there 
are  some  really  fine  lines  in  it,  and  I  admit  to  you  that 
I  think  this  sort  of  literature  rather  above  the  anagrams 
of  Master  Colleville." 

"Oh!"  replied  Minard,  "Colleville's  anagrams  are 
mere  witticisms,  which  have  nothing  in  common  with  the 
sterner  accents  of  Melpomene." 

"And  yet,"  said  Minard,  "I  can  assure  you  he  attaches 
the  greatest  importance  to  that  rubbish,  and  apropos  to 
his  anagrams,  as,  indeed,  about  many  other  things,  he 
is  not  a  little  puffed  up.  Since  their  emigration  to  the 
Madeleine  quarter  it  seems  to  me  that  not  only  the  Sieur 
Colleville,  but  his  wife  and  daughter,  and  the  Thuilliers 
and  the  whole  coterie  have  assumed  an  air  of  importance 
which  is  rather  difficult  to  justify." 

"No  wonder!"  said  Phellion ;  uone  must  have  a  pretty 
strong  head  to  stand  the  fumes  of  opulence.  Our  friends 
have  become  so  very  rich  by  the  purchase  of  that  prop- 
erty where  they  have  gone  to  live  that  we  ought  to  for- 
give them  for  a  little  intoxication;  and  I  must  say  the 
dinner  they  gave  us  yesterday  for  a  house- warming  was 
really  as  well  arranged  as  it  was  succulent." 

"I  myself,"  said  Minard,  "have  given  a  few  remark- 
able dinners  to  which  men  in  high  governmental  posi- 
tions have  not  disdained  to  come,  yet  I  am  not  puffed  up 
with  pride  on  that  account;  such  as  my  friends  have 
always  known  me  that  I  have  remained." 

"You,  Monsieur  le  maire,  have  long  been  habituated 
to  the  splendid  existence  you  have  made  for  yourself  by 
your  high  commercial  talents;  our  friends,  on  the  con- 
trary, so  lately  embarked  on  the  smiling  ship  of  Fortune, 
have  not  yet  found,  as  the  vulgar  saying  is,  their  sea- 
legs." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  273 

And  then  to  cut  short  a  conversation  in  which  Phellion 
began  to  think  the  mayor  rather  "caustic,"  he  made  as 
if  he  intended  to  take  leave  of  him.  In  order  to  reach 
their  respective  homes  they  did  not  always  take  the  same 
way. 

"Are  you  going  through  the  Luxembourg?"  asked 
Minard,  not  allowing  Phellion  to  give  him  the  slip. 

"I  shall  cross  it,  but  I  have  an  appointment  to  meet 
Madame  Phellion  and  the  little  Barniols  at  the  end  of 
the  grand  alley." 

"Then,"  said  Minard,  "I'll  go  with  you  and  have  the 
pleasure  of  making  my  bow  to  Madame  Phellion;  and  I 
shall  get  the  fresh  air  at  the  same  time,  for,  in  spite  of 
hearing  fine  things,  one's  head  gets  tired  at  the  business 
we  have  just  been  about." 

Minard  had  felt  that  Phellion  gave  rather  reluctant 
assent  to  his  sharp  remarks  about  the  new  establishment 
of  the  Thuilliers,  and  he  did  not  attempt  to  renew 
the  subject;  but  when  he  had  Madame  Phellion  for  a  lis- 
tener, he  was  very  sure  that  his  spite  would  find  an 
echo. 

"Well,  fair  lady,"  he  began,  "what  did  you  think  of 
yesterday's  dinner?" 

"It  was  very  fine,"  replied  Madame  Phellion;  "as  I 
tasted  that  soup  a  la  bisque  I  knew  that  some  caterer, 
like  Chevet,  had  supplanted  the  cook.  But  the  whole 
affair  was  dull;  it  had  n't  the  gayety  of  our  old  meetings 
in  the  Latin  quarter.  And  then,  did  n't  it  strike  you, 
as  it  did  me,  that  Madame  and  Mademoiselle  Thuillier 
no  longer  seemed  mistresses  of  their  own  house?  I  really 
felt  as  if  I  were  the  guest  of  Madame  —  what  is  her 
name?     I  never  can  remember  it." 

"Torna,  Comtesse  de  Godollo,"  said  Phellion,  interven- 
ing.    "The  name  is  euphonious  enough  to  remember." 

"Euphonious  if  you  like,  my  dear;  but  to  me  it  never 
seems  a  name  at  all." 

18 


274  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"It  is  a  Magyar,  or  to  speak  more  commonly,  a 
Hungarian  name.  Our  own  name,  if  we  wanted  to  dis- 
cuss it,  might  be  said  to  be  a  loan  from  the  Greek 
language." 

uVery  likely;  at  any  rate  we  have  the  advantage  of 
being  known,  not  only  in  our  own  quarter,  but  through- 
out the  tuition  world,  where  we  have  earned  an  honorable 
position ;  while  this  Hungarian  countess,  who  makes,  as 
they  say,  the  good  and  the  bad  weather  in  the  Thuilliers, 
home,  where  does  she  come  from,  I'd  like  to  know? 
How  did  such  a  fine  lady,  —  for  she  has  good  manners 
and  a  very  distinguished  air,  no  one  denies  her  that,  — 
how  came  she  to  fall  in  love  with  Brigitte;  who,  between 
ourselves,  keeps  a  sickening  odor  of  the  porter's  lodge 
about  her.  For  my  part,  I  think  this  devoted  friend  is 
an  intriguing  creature,  who  scents  money,  and  is  schem- 
ing for  some  future  gain." 

"Ah  ga !  "  said  Minard,  uthen  you  don't  know  the 
original  cause  of  the  intimacy  between  Madame  la 
Comtesse  de  Godollo  and  the  Thuilliers?" 

"She  is  a  tenant  in  their  house;  she  occupies  the 
entresol  beneath  their  apartment." 

"True,  but  there  's  something  more  than  that  in  it. 
Zelie,  my  wife,  heard  it  from  Josephine,  who  wanted, 
lately,  to  enter  our  service;  the  matter  came  to  noth- 
ing, for  Francoise,  our  woman,  who  thought  of  marry- 
ing, changed  her  mind.  You  must  know,  fair  lady,  that 
it  was  solely  Madame  de  Godollo  who  brought  about  the 
emigration  of  the  Thuilliers,  whose  upholsterer,  as  one 
might  say,  she  is." 

"What!  their  upholsterer?"  cried  Phellion, —  "that 
distinguished  woman,  of  whom  one  may  truly  say, 
Incessu  patuit  dea;  which  in  French  we  very  inade- 
quately render  by  the  expression,  'bearing  of  a  queen  '  ?  " 

"Excuse  me,"  said  Minard.  "I  did  not  mean  that 
Madame  de  Godollo  is  actually  in  the  furniture  business; 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  275 

but,  at  the  time  when  Mademoiselle  Thuillier  decided, 
by  la  Peyrade's  advice,  to  manage  the  new  house  her- 
self, that  little  fellow,  who  has  n't  all  the  ascendency 
over  her  mind  he  thinks  he  has,  could  n't  persuade  her 
to  move  the  family  into  the  splendid  apartment  where 
they  received  us  yesterday.  Mademoiselle  Brigitte  ob- 
jected that  she  should  have  to  change  her  habits,  and 
that  her  friends  and  relations  would  n't  follow  her  to 
such  a  distant  quarter  —  " 

"It  is  quite  certain,"  interrupted  Madame  Phellion, 
"that  to  make  up  one's  mind  to  hire  a  carriage  every 
Sunday,  one  wants  a  prospect  of  greater  pleasure  than 
can  be  found  in  that  salon.  When  one  thinks  that, 
except  on  the  day  of  the  famous  dance  of  the  candidacy, 
they  never  once  opened  the  piano  in  the  rue  Saint- 
Dominique!  " 

"It  would  have  been,  I  am  sure,  most  agreeable  to  the 
company  to  have  a  talent  like  yours  put  in  requisition," 
remarked  Minard;  "but  those  are  not  ideas  that  could 
ever  come  into  the  mind  of  that  good  Brigitte.  She  'd 
have  seen  two  more  candles  to  light.  Five-franc  pieces 
are  her  music.  So,  when  la  Peyrade  and  Thuillier 
insisted  that  she  should  move  into  the  apartment  in  the 
Place  de  la  Madeleine,  she  thought  of  nothing  but  the 
extra  costs  entailed  by  the  removal.  She  judged,  rightly 
enough,  that  beneath  those  gilded  ceilings  her  old  penates 
might  have  a  singular  effect." 

"See  how  all  things  link  together,"  remarked  Phellion, 
"and  how,  from  the  summits  of  society,  luxury  infiltrates 
itself,  sooner  or  later,  through  the  lower  classes,  leading 
to  the  ruin  of  empires." 

"You  are  broaching  there,  my  dear  commander,"  said 
Minard,  "one  of  the  most  knotty  questions  of  political 
economy.  Many  good  minds  think,  on  the  contrary, 
that  luxury  is  absolutely  demanded  in  the  interests  of 
commerce,  which  is  certainly  the  life  of  States.     In  any 


276  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

case,  this  view,  which  is  n't  yours,  appears  to  have  been 
that  of  Madame  de  Godollo,  for,  they  tell  me,  her  apart- 
ment is  very  coquettishly  furnished;  and  to  coax  Made- 
moiselle Brigitte  into  the  same  path  of  elegance  she 
made  a  proposal  to  her  as  follows:  '  A  friend  of  mine,' 
she  said,  '  a  Russian  princess  for  whom  one  of  the  first 
upholsterers  has  just  made  splendid  furniture,  is  sud- 
denly recalled  to  Russia  by  the  czar,  a  gentleman  with 
whom  no  one  dares  to  trifle.  The  poor  woman  is  there- 
fore obliged  to  turn  everything  she  owns  here  into  money 
as  fast  as  possible ;  and  I  feel  sure  she  would  sell  this 
furniture  for  ready  money  at  a  quarter  of  the  price  it 
cost  her.  All  of  it  is  nearly  new,  and  some  things  have 
never  been  used  at  all.'  " 

"So,"  cried  Madame  Phellion,  "all  that  magnificence 
displayed  before  our  eyes  last  night  was  a  magnificent 
economical  bargain?" 

"Just  so,"  replied  Minard ;  "and  the  thing  that  decided 
Mademoiselle  Brigitte  to  take  that  splendid  chance  was 
not  so  much  the  desire  to  renew  her  shabby  furniture  as 
the  idea  of  doing  an  excellent  stroke  of  business.  In 
that  old  maid  there  's  always  something  of  Madame  la 
Ressource  in  Moliere's  '  Miser.'  " 

"I  think,  Monsieur  le  maire,  that  you  are  mistaken," 
said  Phellion.  "Madame  la  Ressource  is  a  character  in 
*  Turcaret,'  a  very  immoral  play  by  the  late  Le  Sage." 

"Do  you  think  so?  "  said  Minard.  "Well,  very  likely. 
But  what  is  certain  is  that,  though  the  barrister  ingra- 
tiated himself  with  Brigitte  in  helping  her  to  buy  the 
house,  it  was  by  this  clever  jockeying  about  the  furni- 
ture that  the  foreign  countess  got  upon  the  footing  with 
Brigitte  that  you  now  see.  You  may  have  remarked, 
perhaps,  that  a  struggle  is  going  on  between  those  two 
influences ;  which  we  may  designate  as  the  house,  and  its 
furniture." 

"Yes,  certainly,"  said  Madame  Phellion,  with  a  beam- 


The  Leaser  Bourgeoisie.  211 

ing  expression  that  bore  witness  to  the  interest  she  took 
in  the  conversation,  "it  did  seem  to  me  that  the  great 
lady  allowed  herself  to  contradict  the  barrister,  and  did 
it,  too,  with  a  certain  sharpness." 

"Very  marked  sharpness,"  resumed  Minard,  "and  that 
intriguing  fellow  perceives  it.  It  strikes  me  that  the 
lady's  hostility  makes  him  uneasy.  The  Thuilliers  he 
got  cheaply;  for,  between  ourselves  you  know,  there's 
not  much  in  Thuillier  himself ;  but  he  feels  now  that  he 
has  met  a  tough  adversary,  and  he  is  looking  anxiously 
for  a  weak  spot  on  which  to  attack  her." 

"Well,  that 's  justice,"  said  Madame  Phellion.  "For 
some  time  past  that  man,  who  used  to  make  himself  so 
small  and  humble,  has  been  taking  airs  of  authority  in 
the  house  which  are  quite  intolerable;  he  behaves  openly 
as  the  son-in-law ;  and  you  know  very  well,  in  that  affair 
of  Thuillier's  election  he  jockeyed  us  all,  and  made  us 
the  stepping-stone  for  his  matrimonial  ambition." 

"Yes;  but  I  can  assure  you,"  said  Minard,  "that  at 
the  present  time  his  influence  is  waning.  In  the  first 
place,  he  won't  find  every  day  for  his  dear,  good  friend, 
as  he  calls  him,  a  fine  property  worth  a  million  to  be 
bought  for  a  bit  of  bread." 

"Then  they  did  get  that  house  very  cheap?"  said 
Madame  Phellion,  interrogatively. 

"They  got  it  for  nothing,  as  the  result  of  a  dirty 
intrigue  which  the  lawyer  Desroches  related  to  me  the 
other  day.  If  it  ever  became  known  to  the  council  of 
the  bar,  that  little  barrister  would  be  badly  compromised. 
The  next  thing  is  the  coming  election  to  the  Chamber. 
Eating  gives  appetite,  as  they  say,  and  our  good  Thuillier 
is  hungry;  but  he  begins  to  perceive  that  Monsieur  de  la 
Peyrade,  when  it  becomes  a  question  of  getting  him  that 
mouthful,  has  n't  his  former  opportunity  to  make  dupes  of 
us.  That  is  why  the  family  is  turning  more  and  more  to 
Madame  de  Godollo,  who  seems  to  have  some  very  high 


278  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

acquaintances  in  the  political  world.  Besides  all  this, 
in  fact,  without  dwelling  on  the  election  business,  which 
is  still  a  distant  matter,  this  Hungarian  countess  is 
becoming,  every  day,  more  and  more  a  necessity  to 
Brigitte;  for  it  must  be  owned  that  without  the  help 
of  the  great  lady,  the  poor  soul  would  look  in  the  midst 
of  her  gilded  salon  like  a  ragged  gown  in  a  bride's 
trousseau." 

"Oh!  Monsieur  le  maire,  you  are  cruel,"  said  Madame 
Phellion,  affecting  compunction. 

"No,  but  say,"  returned  Minard,  "with  your  hand 
on  your  conscience,  whether  Brigitte,  whether  Madame 
Thuillier  could  preside  in  such  a  salon?  No,  it  is  the 
Hungarian  countess  who  does  it  all.  She  furnished  the 
rooms;  she  selected  the  male  domestic,  whose  excellent 
training  and  intelligence  you  must  have  observed ;  it  was 
she  who  arranged  the  menu  of  that  dinner;  in  short,  she 
is  the  providence  of  the  parvenu  colony,  which,  without 
her  intervention,  would  have  made  the  whole  quarter 
laugh  at  it.  And  —  now  this  is  a  very  noticeable  thing 
—  instead  of  being  a  parasite  like  la  Peyrade,  this  Hun- 
garian lady,  who  seems  to  have  a  fortune  of  her  own, 
proves  to  be  not  only  disinterested,  but  generous.  The 
two  gowns  that  you  saw  Brigitte  and  Madame  Thuillier 
wear  last  night  were  a  present  from  her,  and  it  was 
because  she  came  herself  to  superintend  the  toilet  of 
our  two  amphitryonesses  that  you  were  so  surprised  last 
night  not  to  find  them  rigged  in  their  usual  dowdy 
fashion." 

"Butwhatcan  be  the  motive,"  asked  Madame  Phellion, 
"of  this  maternal  and  devoted  guardianship?" 

"My  dear  wife,"  said  Phellion,  solemnly,  "the  motives 
of  human  actions  are  not  always,  thank  God !  selfishness 
and  the  consideration  of  vile  interests.  There  are  hearts 
in  this  world  that  find  pleasure  in  doing  good  for  its  own 
sake.     This  lady  may  have  seen  in  our  good  friends  a 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  .    279 

set  of  people  about  to  enter  blindly  into  a  sphere  they 
knew  nothing  about,  and  having  encouraged  their  first 
steps  by  the  purchase  of  this  furniture,  she  may,  like  a 
nurse  attached  to  her  nursling,  find  pleasure  in  giving 
them  the  milk  of  her  social  knowledge  and  her  counsels." 

"He  seems  to  keep  aloof  from  our  strictures,  the  dear 
husband!"  cried  Minard;  "but  just  see  how  he  goes 
beyond  them !  " 

"I!"  said  Phellion;  "it  is  neither  my  intention  nor 
my  habit  to  do  so." 

"All  the  same  it  would  be  difficult  to  say  more  neatly 
that  the  Thuilliers  are  geese,  and  that  Madame  de  Godollo 
is  bringing  them  up  by  hand." 

"I  do  not  accept  for  these  friends  of  ours,"  said 
Phellion,  "a  characterization  so  derogatory  to  their 
repute.  I  meant  to  say  that  they  were  lacking,  perhaps, 
in  that  form  of  experience,  and  that  this  noble  lady  had 
placed  at  their  service  her  knowledge  of  the  world  and 
its  usages.  I  protest  against  any  interpretation  of  my 
language  which  goes  beyond  my  thought  thus  limited." 

"Well,  anyhow,  you  will  agree,  my  dear  commander, 
that  in  the  idea  of  giving  Celeste  to  this  la  Peyrade,  there 
is  something  more  than  want  of  experience;  there  is, 
it  must  be  said,  blundering  folly  and  immorality;  for 
really  the  goings  on  of  that  barrister  with  Madame 
Colleville  — " 

"Monsieur  le  maire,"  interrupted  Phellion,  with  re- 
doubled solemnity,  "Solon,  the  law-giver,  decreed  no 
punishment  for  parricide,  declaring  it  to  bean  impossible 
crime.  I  think  the  same  thing  may  be  said  of  the  offence 
to  which  you  seem  to  make  allusion.  Madame  Colleville 
granting  favors  to  Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade,  and  all  the 
while  intending  to  give  him  her  daughter?  No,  mon- 
sieur, no!  that  passes  imagination.  Questioned  on  this 
subject,  like  Marie  Antoinette,  by  a  human  tribunal, 
Madame  Colleville  would  answer  with  the  queen,  '  I 
appeal  to  all  mothers. '  " 


280  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Nevertheless,  my  friend,"  said  Madame  Phellion, 
"allow  me  to  remind  you  that  Madame  Colleville  is  ex- 
cessively light-minded,  and  has  given,  as  we  all  know, 
pretty  good  proofs  of  it." 

"Enough,  my  dear,"  said  Phellion.  "The  dinner  hour 
summons  us ;  I  think  that,  little  by  little,  we  have  allowed 
this  conversation  to  drift  toward  the  miry  slough  of 
backbiting." 

"You  are  full  of  illusions,  my  dear  commander,"  said 
Minard,  taking  Phellion  by  the  hand  and  shaking  it; 
"but  they  are  honorable  illusions,  and  I  envy  them. 
Madame,  I  have  the  honor  —  "  added  the  mayor,  with  a 
respectful  bow  to  Madame  Phellion. 

And  each  party  took  its  way. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie,  281 


II. 

THE    PROVENCAL' S    PRESENT   POSITION. 

The  information  acquired  by  the  mayor  of  the  11th 
arrondissement  was  by  no  means  incorrect.  In  the 
Thuillier  salon,  since  the  emigration  to  the  Madeleine 
quarter,  might  be  seen  daily,  between  the  tart  Brigitte 
and  the  plaintive  Madame  Thuillier,  the  graceful  and 
attractive  figure  of  a  woman  who  conveyed  to  this  salon 
an  appearance  of  the  most  unexpected  elegance.  It  was 
quite  true  that  through  the  good  offices  of  this  lady,  who 
had  become  her  tenant  in  the  new  house,  Brigitte  had 
made  a  speculation  in  furniture  not  less  advantageous  in 
its  way,  but  more  avowable,  than  the  very  shady  purchase 
of  the  house  itself.  For  six  thousand  francs  in  ready 
money  she  had  obtained  furniture  lately  from  workshops 
representing  a  value  of  at  least  thirty  thousand. 

It  was  still  further  true  that  in  consequence  of  a  ser- 
vice which  went  deep  into  her  heart,  Brigitte  was  showing 
to  the  beautiful  foreign  countess  the  respectful  deference 
which  the  bourgeoisie,  in  spite  of  its  sulky  jealousy,  is 
much  less  indisposed  to  give  to  titles  of  nobility  and 
high  positions  in  the  social  hierarchy  than  people  think. 
As  this  Hungarian  countess  was  a  woman  of  great  tact 
and  accomplished  training,  in  taking  the  direction  which 
she  had  thought  it  wise  to  assume  over  the  affairs  of  her 
proteges,  she  had  been  careful  to  guard  her  influence  from 
all  appearance  of  meddlesome  and  imperious  dictation. 
On  the  contrary,  she  flattered  Brigitte's  claim  to  be  a 
model  housekeeper;  in  her  own  household  expenses  she 
affected  to  ask  the  spinster's  advice;  so  that  by  reserv- 


282  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

ing  to  herself  the  department  of  luxurious  expenses,  she 
had  more  the  air  of  giving  information  than  of  exercising 
supervision. 

La  Peyrade  could  not  disguise  from  himself  that  a 
change  was  taking  place.  His  influence  was  evidently 
waning  before  that  of  this  stranger;  but  the  antagonism 
of  the  countess  was  not  confined  to  a  simple  struggle  for 
influence.  She  made  no  secret  of  being  opposed  to  his 
suit  for  Ce'leste;  she  gave  her  unequivocal  approval  to 
the  love  of  Felix  Phellion,  the  professor.  Minard,  by 
whom  this  fact  was  not  unobserved,  took  very  good  care, 
in  the  midst  of  his  other  information,  not  to  mention  it 
to  those  whom  it  most  concerned. 

La  Peyrade  was  all  the  more  anxious  at  being  thus 
undermined  by  a  hostility  the  cause  of  which  was  inex- 
plicable to  him,  because  he  knew  he  had  himself  to  blame 
for  bringing  this  disquieting  adversary  into  the  very 
heart  of  his  citadel.  His  first  mistake  was  in  yielding 
to  the  barren  pleasure  of  disappointing  Cerizet  in  the 
lease  of  the  house.  If  Brigitte  by  his  advice  and  urging 
had  not  taken  the  administration  of  the  property  into  her 
own  hands  there  was  every  probability  that  she  would 
never  have  made  the  acquaintance  of  Madame  deGodollo.' 
Another  imprudence  had  been  to  urge  the  Thuilliers  to 
leave  their  old  home  in  the  Latin  quarter. 

At  this  period,  when  his  power  and  credit  had  reached 
their  apogee,  Theodose  considered  his  marriage  a  settled 
thing ;  and  he  now  felt  an  almost  childish  haste  to  spring 
into  the  sphere  of  elegance  which  seemed  henceforth  to 
be  his  future.  He  had  therefore  furthered  the  induce- 
ments of  the  countess,  feeling  that  he  thus  sent  the 
Thuilliers  before  him  to  make  his  bed  in  the  splendid 
apartment  he  intended  to  share  with  them.  By  thus 
removing  them  from  their  old  home  he  saw  another  ad- 
vantage,—  that  of  withdrawing  Celeste  from  daily  inter- 
course with  a  rival  who  seemed  to  him  dangerous.     De- 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  283 

prived  of  the  advantage  of  propinquity,  Felix  would  be 
forced  to  make  bis  visits  farther  apart;  and  therefore 
there  would  be  greater  facilities  to  ruin  him  in  the  girl's 
heart,  where  he  was  installed  on  condition  of  giving  re- 
ligious satisfaction, —  a  requirement  to  which  he  showed 
himself  refractory. 

But  in  all  these  plans  and  schemes  various  drawbacks 
confronted  him.  To  enlarge  the  horizon  of  the  Thuilliers 
was  for  la  Peyrade  to  run  the  chance  of  creating  com- 
petition for  the  confidence  and  admiration  of  which  he 
had  been  till  then  the  exclusive  object.  In  the  sort  of 
provincial  life  they  had  hitherto  lived,  Brigitte  and  his 
dear,  good  friend  placed  him,  for  want  of  comparison, 
at  a  height  from  which  the  juxtaposition  of  other  superi- 
orities and  elegances  must  bring  him  down.  So,  then, 
apart  from  the  blows  covertly  dealt  him  by  Madame  de 
Godollo,  the  idea  of  the  transpontine  emigration  had 
proved  to  be,  on  the  whole,  a  bad  one. 

The  Collevilles  had  followed  their  friends  the  Thuil- 
liers, to  the  new  house  near  the  Madeleine,  where  an 
entresol  at  the  back  had  been  conceded  to  them  at  a  price 
conformable  to  their  budget.  But  Colleville  declared  it 
lacked  light  and  air,  and  being  obliged  to  go  daily  from 
the  boulevard  of  the  Madeleine  to  the  faubourg  Saint- 
Jacques,  where  his  office  was,  he  fumed  against  the 
arrangement  of  which  he  was  the  victim,  and  felt  at 
times  that  la  Peyrade  was  a  tyrant.  Madame  Colleville, 
on  the  other  hand,  had  flung  herself  into  an  alarming 
orgy  of  bonnets,  mantles,  and  new  gowns,  requiring  the 
presentation  of  a  mass  of  bills,  which  led  not  infre- 
quently to  scenes  in  the  household  that  were  more  or  less 
stormy.  As  for  Celeste,  she  had  undoubtedly  fewer 
opportunities  to  see  young  Phellion,  but  she  had  also 
fewer  chances  to  rush  into  religious  controversy;  and 
absence,  which  is  dangerous  to  none  but  inferior  attach- 
ments, made  her  think  more  tenderly  and  less  theologi- 
cally of  the  man  of  her  dreams. 


284  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

But  all  these  false  calculations  of  The'odose  were  as 
nothing  in  the  balance  with  another  cause  for  his  dimin- 
ishing influence  which  was  now  to  weigh  heavily  on  his 
situation. 

He  had  assured  Thuillier  that,  after  a  short  delay  and 
the  payment  of  ten  thousand  francs,  to  which  his  dear, 
good  friend  submitted  with  tolerable  grace,  the  cross 
of  the  Legion  of  honor  would  arrive  to  realize  the  secret 
desire  of  all  his  life.  Two  months  had  now  passed  with- 
out a  sign  of  that  glorious  rattle;  and  the  former  sub- 
director,  who  would  have  felt  such  joy  in  parading  his 
red  ribbon  on  the  boulevard  of  the  Madeleine,  of  which 
he  was  now  one  of  the  most  assiduous  promenaders,  had 
nothing  to  adorn  his  buttonhole  but  the  flowers  of  the 
earth,  the  privilege  of  everybody, —  of  which  he  was  far 
less  proud  than  Beranger. 

La  Peyrade  had,  to  be  sure,  mentioned  an  unforeseen 
and  inexplicable  difficulty  by  which  all  the  efforts  of  the 
Comtesse  du  Bruel  had  been  paralyzed;  but  Thuillier 
did  not  take  comfort  in  the  explanation;  and  on  certain 
days,  when  the  disappointment  became  acute,  he  was  very 
near  saying  with  Chicaneau  in  Les  Plaideurs,  "Return 
my  money." 

However,  no  outbreak  happened,  for  la  Peyrade  held 
him  in  leash  by  the  famous  pamphlet  on  "Taxation  and 
the  Sliding-Scale ;  "  the  conclusion  of  which  had  been 
suspended  during  the  excitement  of  moving;  for  during 
that  agitating  period  Thuillier  had  been  unable  to  give 
proper  care  to  the  correction  of  proofs,  about  which,  we 
may  remember,  he  had  reserved  the  right  of  punctilious 
examination.  La  Peyrade  had  now  reached  a  point  when 
he  was  forced  to  see  that,  in  order  to  restore  his  influ- 
ence, which  was  daily  evaporating,  he  must  strike  some 
grand  blow ;  and  it  was  precisely  this  nagging  and  vexa- 
tious fancy  about  the  proofs  that  the  barrister  decided 
to  take  as  the  starting-point  of  a  scheme,  both  deep  and 
adventurous,  which  came  into  his  mind. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  285 

One  day,  when  the  pair  were  engaged  on  the  sheets  of 
the  pamphlet,  a  discussion  arose  upon  the  word  "nepo- 
tism," which  Thuillier  wished  to  eliminate  from  one  of 
la  Peyrade's  sentences,  declaring  that  never  had  he  met 
with  it  anywhere;  it  was  pure  neologism  —  which,  to  the 
literary  notions  of  the  bourgeoisie,  is  equivalent  to  the 
idea  of  1793  and  the  Terror. 

Generally  la  Peyrade  took  the  ridiculous  remarks  of 
his  dear,  good  friend  pretty  patiently ;  but  on  this  occa- 
sion he  made  himself  exceedingly  excited,  and  signified 
to  Thuillier  that  he  might  terminate  himself  a  work  to 
which  he  applied  such  luminous  and  intelligent  criticism ; 
after  which  remark  he  departed  and  was  not  seen  again 
for  several  days. 

At  first  Thuillier  supposed  this  outbreak  to  be  a 
mere  passing  effect  of  ill-humor;  but  when  la  Peyrade's 
absence  grew  prolonged  he  felt  the  necessity  of  taking 
some  conciliatory  step,  and  accordingly  he  went  to  see 
the  barrister,  intending  to  make  honorable  amends  and 
so  put  an  end  to  his  sulkiness.  Wishing,  however,  to 
give  this  advance  an  air  which  allowed  an  honest  issue 
to  his  own  self-love,  he  entered  la  Peyrade's  room  with 
an  easy  manner,  and  said,  cheerfully :  — 

"Well,  my  dear  fellow,  it  turns  out  that  we  were  both 
right:  nepotism  means  the  authority  that  the  nephews  of 
popes  take  in  public  affairs.  I  have  searched  the  dic- 
tionary and  it  gives  no  other  explanation;  but,  from 
what  Phellion  tells  me,  I  find  that  in  the  political  vocab- 
ulary the  meaning  of  the  word  has  been  extended  to 
cover  the  influence  which  corrupt  ministers  permit  cer- 
tain persons  to  exercise  illegally.  I  think,  therefore, 
that  we  may  retain  the  expression,  though  it  is  certainly 
not  taken  in  that  sense  by  Napoleon  Landais." 

La  Peyrade,  who,  in  receiving  his  visitor,  had  affected 
to  be  extremely  busy  in  sorting  his  papers,  contented 
himself  by  shrugging  his  shoulders  and  saying  nothing. 


286  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Well,"  said  Thuillier,  "have  you  got  the  last  proofs? 
We  ought  to  be  getting  on." 

"If  you  have  sent  nothing  to  the  printing-office," 
replied  la  Peyrade,  "of  course  there  are  no  proofs.  I 
myself  have  n't  touched  the  manuscript." 

"But,  my  dear  Theodose,"  said  Thuillier,  "it  isn't 
possible  that  for  such  a  trifle  you  are  affronted.  I  don't 
pretend  to  be  a  writer,  only  as  my  name  is  on  the  book 
I  have,  I  think,  the  right  to  my  opinion  about  a  word." 

"But  Mossieu  Phellion,"  replied  Theodose,  "is  a 
writer;  and  inasmuch  as  you  have  consulted  him,  I  don't 
see  why  you  can't  engage  him  to  finish  the  work  in 
which,  for  my  part,  I  have  resolved  not  to  co-operate 
any  longer." 

"Heavens!  what  temper!  "  cried  Thuillier;  "here  you 
are  furious  iust  because  I  seemed  to  question  a  word  and 
then  consulted  some  one.  You  know  very  well  that  I 
have  read  passages  to  Phellion,  Colleville,  Minard,  and 
Barniol  as  if  the  work  were  mine,  in  order  to  see  the 
effect  it  would  produce  upon  the  public;  but  that's  no 
reason  why  I  should  be  willing  to  give  my  name  to  the 
things  they  are  capable  of  writing.  Do  you  wish  me  to 
give  you  a  proof  of  the  confidence  I  have  in  you? 
Madame  la  Comtesse  de  Godollo,  to  whom  I  read  a  few 
pages  last  night,  told  me  that  the  pamphlet  was  likely  to 
get  me  into  trouble  with  the  authorities ;  but  I  would  n't 
allow  what  she  said  to  have  any  influence  upon  me." 

"Well,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "I  think  that  the  oracle  of 
the  family  sees  the  matter  clearly;  and  I  've  no  desire  to 
bring  your  head  to  the  scaffold." 

"All  that  is  nonsense,"  said  Thuillier.  "Have  you,  or 
have  you  not,  an  intention  to  leave  me  in  the  lurch?  " 

"  Literary  questions  make  more  quarrels  among  friends 
than  political  questions,"  replied  Theodose.  "I  wish  to 
put  an  end  to  these  discussions  between  us." 

"But,  my  dear  Theodose,  never  have  I  assumed  to  be 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  287 

a  literary  man.  I  think  I  have  sound  common-sense, 
and  I  say  out  my  ideas;  you  can't  be  angry  at  that;  and 
if  you  play  me  this  trick,  and  refuse  to  collaborate  any 
longer,  it  is  because  you  have  some  other  grudge  against 
me  that  I  know  nothing  about." 

UI  don't  see  why  you  call  it  a  trick.  There  's  noth- 
ing easier  for  you  than  not  to  write  a  pamphlet;  you  '11 
simply  be  Jerome  Thuillier,  as  before." 

"And  yet  it  was  you  yourself  who  declared  that  this 
publication  would  help  my  election;  besides,  I  repeat,  I 
have  read  passages  to  all  our  friends,  I  have  announced 
the  matter  in  the  municipal  council,  and  if  the  work 
were  not  to  appear  I  should  be  dishonored;  people  would 
be  sure  to  say  the  government  had  bought  me  up." 

"You  have  only  to  say  that  you  are  the  friend  of 
Phellion,  the  incorruptible;  that  will  clear  you.  You 
might  even  give  Celeste  to  his  booby  of  a  son;  that 
alliance  would  certainly  protect  you  from  all  suspicion." 

"Theodose,"  said  Thuillier,  "there  is  something  in 
your  mind  that  you  don't  tell  me.  It  is  not  natural  that 
for  a  simple  quarrel  about  a  word  you  should  wish  to 
lose  a  friend  like  me." 

"Well,  yes,  there  is,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  with  the  air 
of  a  man  who  makes  up  his  mind  to  speak  out.  "I  don't 
like  ingratitude." 

"Nor  I  either;  I  don't  like  it,"  said  Thuillier,  hotly; 
"and  if  you  accuse  me  of  so  base  an  action,  I  summon 
you  to  explain  yourself.  We  must  get  out  of  these  hints 
and  innuendoes.  What  do  you  complain  of?  What  have 
you  against  a  man  whom  only  a  few  days  ago  you  called 
your  friend  ?  " 

"Nothing  and  everything,"  replied  la  Peyrade.  "You 
and  your  sister  are  much  too  clever  to  break  openly  with 
a  man  who,  at  the  risk  of  his  reputation,  has  put  a  mil- 
lion in  your  hands.  But  I  am  not  so  simple  that  I  don't 
know  how  to  detect  changes.     There  are  people  about 


288  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

you  who  have  set  themselves,  in  an  underhand  way,  to 
destroy  me;  and  Brigitte  has  only  one  thought,  and  that 
is,  how  to  find  a  decent  way  of  not  keeping  her  promises. 
Men  like  me  don't  wait  till  their  claims  are  openly  pro- 
tested, and  I  certainly  do  not  intend  to  impose  myself 
on  any  family;  still,  I  was  far,  I  acknowledge,  from 
expecting  such  treatment." 

"Come,  come,"  said  Thuillier,  kindly,  seeing  in  the 
barrister's  eye  the  glitter  of  a  tear  of  which  he  was  com- 
pletely the  dupe,  "I  don't  know  what  Brigitte  may  have 
been  doing  to  you,  but  one  thing  is  very  certain:  1  have 
never  ceased  to  be  your  most  devoted  friend." 

"No,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "since  that  mishap  about  the 
cross  I  am  only  good,  as  the  saying  is,  to  throw  to  the 
dogs.  How  could  I  have  struggled  against  secret  influ- 
ences? Possibly  it  is  that  pamphlet,  about  which  you 
have  talked  a  great  deal  too  much,  that  has  hindered 
your  appointment.  The  ministers  are  so  stupid !  They 
would  rather  wait  and  have  their  hand  forced  by  the 
fame  of  the  publication  than  do  the  thing  with  a  good 
grace  as  the  reward  of  your  services.  But  these  are 
political  mysteries  which  would  never  enter  your  sister's 
mind." 

"The  devil!"  cried  Thuillier.  "I  think  I've  got  a 
pretty  observing  eye,  and  yet  I  can't  see  the  slightest 
change  in  Brigitte  toward  you." 

"Oh,  yes!"  said  la  Peyrade,  "your  eye-sight  is  so 
good  that  you  have  never  seen  perpetually  beside  her 
that  Madame  de  Godollo,  whom  she  now  thinks  she  can't 
live  without." 

"Ha,  ha!  "  said  Thuillier,  slyly,  "so  it  is  a  little 
jealousy,  is  it,  in  our  mind?" 

"Jealousy!  "  returned  la  Peyrade.  "I  don't  know  if 
that 's  the  right  word,  but  certainly  your  sister  —  whose 
mind  is  nothing  above  the  ordinary,  and  to  whom  I  am 
surprised   that  a   man   of   your  intellectual   superiority 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  289 

allows  a  supremacy  in  your  household  which  she  uses 
and  abuses  —  " 

"How  can  I  help  it,  my  dear  fellow,"  interrupted 
Thuillier,  sucking  in  the  compliment;  "she  is  so  abso- 
lutely devoted  to  me." 

"I  admit  the  weakness,  but,  I  repeat,  your  sister 
does  n't  fit  into  your  groove.  Well,  I  say  that  when  a 
man  of  the  value  which  you  are  good  enough  to  recog- 
nize in  me,  does  her  the  honor  to  consult  her  and  devote 
himself  to  her  as  I  have  done,  it  can  hardly  be  agreeable 
to  him  to  find  himself  supplanted  by  a  woman  who  comes 
from  nobody  knows  where  —  and  all  because  of  a  few 
trumpery  chairs  and  tables  she  has  helped  her  to  buy! " 

"With  women,  as  you  know  very  well,"  replied 
Thuillier,  "household  affairs  have  the  first  place." 

"And  Brigitte,  who  wants  a  finger  in  everything,  also 
assumes  to  carry  matters  with  a  high  hand  in  affairs  of 
the  heart.  As  you  are  so  extraordinarily  clear-sighted 
you  ought  to  have  seen  that  in  Brigitte's  mind  nothing 
is  less  certain  than  my  marriage  with  Mademoiselle 
Colleville ;  and  yet  my  love  has  been  solemnly  authorized 
by  you." 

"Good  gracious!"  cried  Thuillier,  "I'd  like  to  see 
any  one  attempt  to  meddle  with  my  arrangements !  " 

"Well,  without  speaking  of  Brigitte,  I  can  tell  you  of 
another  person,"  said  Theodose,  "who  is  doing  that  very 
thing;  and  that  person  is  Mademoiselle  Celeste  herself. 
In  spite  of  their  quarrels  about  religion,  her  mind  is  none 
the  less  full  of  that  little  Phellion." 

"But  why  don't  you  tell  Flavie  to  put  a  stop  to  it?  " 

"No  one  knows  Flavie,  my  dear  Thuillier,  better  than 
you.  She  is  woman  rather  than  a  mother.  I  have  found 
it  necessary  to  do  a  little  bit  of  courting  to  her  myself, 
and,  you  understand,  while  she  is  willing  for  this  mar- 
riage she  doesn't  desire  it  very  much." 

"Well,"  said  Thuillier,  "I'll  undertake  to  speak  to 

19 


290  The  Leaser  Bourgeoisie. 

Celeste  myself.  It  shall  never  be  said  that  a  slip  of  a 
girl  lays  down  the  law  to  me." 

"That's  exactly  what  I  don't  want  you  to  do,"  cried 
laPeyrade.  "Don't  meddle  in  all  this.  Outside  of  your 
relations  to  your  sister  you  have  an  iron  will,  and  I  will 
never  have  it  said  that  you  exerted  your  authority  to  put 
Celeste  in  my  arms;  on  the  contrary,  I  desire  that  the 
child  may  have  complete  control  over  her  own  heart. 
The  only  thing  I  request  is  that  she  shall  decide  posi- 
tively between  Felix  Phellion  and  myself;  because  I  do 
not  choose  to  remain  any  longer  in  this  doubtful  posi- 
tion. It  is  true  we  agreed  that  the  marriage  should  only 
take  place  after  you  became  a  deputy;  but  I  feel  now 
that  it  is  impossible  to  allow  the  greatest  event  of  my 
life  to  remain  at  the  mercy  of  doubtful  circumstances. 
And,  besides,  such  an  arrangement,  though  at  first  agreed 
upon,  seems  to  me  now  to  have  a  flavor  of  a  bargain 
which  is  unbecoming  to  both  of  us.  I  think  I  had  better 
make  you  a  confidence,  to  which  I  am  led  by  the  un- 
pleasant state  of  things  now  between  us.  Dutocq  may 
have  told  you,  before  you  left  the  apartment  in  the  rue 
Saint-Dominique,  that  an  heiress  had  been  offered  to  me 
whose  immediate  fortune  is  larger  than  that  which  Made- 
moiselle Colleville  will  eventually  inherit.  I  refused, 
because  I  have  had  the  folly  to  let  my  heart  be  won,  and 
because  an  alliance  with  a  family  as  honorable  as  yours 
seemed  to  me  more  desirable;  but,  after  all,  it  is  as  well 
to  let  Brigitte  know  that  if  Celeste  refuses  me,  I  am  not 
absolutely  turned  out  into  the  cold." 

"I  can  easily  believe  that,"  said  Thuillier;  "but  as 
for  putting  the  whole  decision  into  the  hands  of  that 
little  girl,  especially  if  she  has,  as  you  tell  me,  a  fancy 
for  Felix  — " 

"I  can't  help  it,"  said  the  barrister.  UI  must,  at  any 
price,  get  out  of  this  position;  it  is  no  longer  tenable. 
You  talk  about  your  pamphlet;  I  am  not  in  a  fit  condi- 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  291 

tion  to  finish  it.  You,  who  have  been  a  man  of  gal- 
lantry, you  must  know  the  dominion  that  women,  fatal 
creatures!  exercise  over  our  whole  being." 

"Bah!"  said  Thuillier,  conceitedly,  "they  cared  for 
me,  but  I  did  not  often  care  for  them ;  I  took  them,  and 
left  them,  you  know." 

"Yes,  but  I,  with  my  Southern  nature,  love  passion- 
ately ;  and  Celeste  has  other  attractions  besides  fortune. 
Brought  up  in  your  household,  under  your  own  eye,  you 
have  made  her  adorable.  Only,  I  must  say,  you  have 
shown  great  weakness  in  letting  that  young  fellow,  who 
does  not  suit  her  in  any  respect,  get  such  hold  upon  her 
fancy." 

"You  are  quite  right;  but  the  thing  began  in  a  childish 
friendship;  she  and  Felix  played  together.  You  came 
much  later;  and  it  is  a  proof  of  the  great  esteem  in 
which  we  hold  you,  that  when  you  made  your  offer. we 
renounced  our  earlier  projects." 

"  You  did,  yes,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "and  with  some 
literary  manias  —  which,  after  all,  are  frequently  full  of 
sense  and  wit  —  you  have  a  heart  of  gold;  with  you 
friendship  is  a  sure  thing,  and  you  know  what  you  mean. 
But  Brigitte  is  another  matter;  you  '11  see,  when  you  pro- 
pose to  her  to  hasten  the  marriage,  what  a  resistance  she 
will  make." 

"I  don't  agree  with  you.  I  think  that  Brigitte  has 
always  wanted  you  and  still  wants  you  for  son-in-law  — 
if  I  may  so  express  myself.  But  whether  she  does  or 
not,  I  beg  you  to  believe  that  in  all  important  matters 
I  know  how  to  have  my  will  obeyed.  Only,  let  us  come 
now  to  a  distinct  understanding  of  what  you  wish;  then 
we  can  start  with  the  right  foot  foremost,  and  you  '11  see 
that  all  will  go  well." 

"I  wish,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  "to  put  the  last  touches 
to  your  pamphlet;  for,  above  all  things,  I  think  of 
you." 


292  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Certainly,"  said  Thuillier,  "we  ought  not  to  sink  in 
port." 

"Well,  in  consequence  of  the  feeling  that  I  am 
oppressed,  stultified  by  the  prospect  of  a  marriage  still 
so  doubtful,  I  am  certain  that  not  a  page  of  manuscript 
could  be  got  out  of  me  in  any  form,  until  the  question  is 
settled." 

"Very  good,"  said  Thuillier;  "then  how  do  you 
present  that  question?" 

"Naturally,  if  Celeste's  decision  be  against  me,  I 
should  wish  an  immediate  solution.  If  I  am  condemned 
to  make  a  marriage  of  convenience  I  ought  to  lose  no 
time  in  taking  the  opportunity  I  mentioned  to  you." 

"So  be  it;  but  what  time  do  you  intend  to  allow  us?  " 

"I  should  think  that  in  fifteen  days  a  girl  might  be 
able  to  make  up  her  mind." 

"Undoubtedly,"  replied  Thuillier;  "but  it  is  very 
repugnant  to  me  to  let  Celeste  decide  without  appeal." 

"For  my  part,  I  will  take  that  risk;  in  any  case,  I 
shall  be  rid  of  uncertainty;  and  that  is  really  my  first 
object.  Between  ourselves,  I  am  not  risking  as  much  as 
you  think.  It  will  take  more  than  fifteen  days  for  a  son 
of  Phellion,  in  other  words,  obstinacy  incarnate  in  silli- 
ness, to  have  done  with  philosophical  hesitations;  and  it 
is  very  certain  that  Celeste  will  not  accept  him  for  a 
husband  unless  he  gives  her  some  proofs  of  conversion." 

"That 's  probable.  But  suppose  Celeste  tries  to 
dawdle;  suppose  she  refuses  to  accept  the  alternative?" 

"That's  your  affair,"  said  the  Provencal.  "I  don't 
know  how  you  regard  the  family  in  Paris ;  I  only  know 
that  in  my  part  of  the  country  it  is  an  unheard-of  thing 
that  a  girl  should  have  such  liberty.  If  you,  your  sister 
(supposing  she  plays  fair  in  the  matter),  and  the  father 
and  mother  can't  succeed  in  making  a  girl  whom  you 
dower  agree  to  so  simple  a  thing  as  to  make  a  perfectly 
free  choice  between  two  suitors,  then  good-bye  to  you! 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  293 

You  '11  have  to  write  upon  your  gate-post  that  Celeste  is 
queen  and  sovereign  of  the  house." 

"Well,  we  have  n't  got  to  that  point  yet,"  said  Thuillier, 
with  a  capable  air. 

"As  for  you,  my  old  fellow,"  resumed  la  Peyrade,  "I 
must  postpone  our  business  until  after  Celeste's  decision. 
Be  that  in  my  favor  or  not,  I  will  then  go  to  work,  and 
in  three  days  the  pamphlet  can  be  finished." 

"Now,"  said  Thuillier,  "I  know  what  you  have  had 
on  your  mind.     I'll  talk  about  it  with  Brigitte." 

"That's  a  sad  conclusion,"  said  la  Peyrade;  "but, 
unhappily,  so  it  is." 

"What  do  you  mean  by  that?" 

"J  would  rather,  as  you  can  easily  imagine,  hear  you 
say  of  yourself  that  the  thing  shall  be  done;  but  old 
habits  can't  be  broken  up." 

"Ah  g a  !  do  you  think  I  'm  a  man  without  any  will, 
any  initiative  of  my  own?" 

"No!  but  I  'd  like  to  be  hidden  in  a  corner  and  hear 
how  you  will  open  the  subject  with  your  sister." 

"Parbleu  !  I  shall  open  it  frankly.  1  will,  very  firmly 
said,  shall  meet  every  one  of  her  objections." 

"Ah,  my  poor  fellow!  "  said  la  Peyrade,  clapping  him 
on  the  shoulder,  "from  Chrysale  down  how  often  have 
we  seen  brave  warriors  lowering  their  pennants  before 
the  wills  of  women  accustomed  to  master  them !  " 

"We'll  see  about  that"  replied  Thuillier,  making  a 
theatrical  exit. 

The  eager  desire  to  publish  his  pamphlet,  and  the 
clever  doubt  thrown  upon  the  strength  of  his  will  had 
made  him  furious,  —  an  actual  tiger ;  and  he  went  away 
resolved,  in  case  of  opposition,  to  reduce  his  household, 
as  the  saying  is,  by  fire  and  sword. 

When  he  reached  home  Thuillier  instantly  laid  the 
question  before  Brigitte.  She,  with  her  crude  good 
sense  and  egotism,  pointed  out  to  him  that  by  thus  has- 


294  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

tening  the  period  formerly  agreed  upon  for  the  marriage, 
they  committed  the  blunder  of  disarming  themselves; 
they  could  not  be  sure  that  when  the  election  took  place 
la  Peyrade  would  put  the  same  zeal  into  preparing  for 
it.  It  might  be,"  said  the  old  maid,  "just  as  it  has  been 
about  the  cross." 

"There  's  this  difference,"  said  Thuillier;  "the  cross 
doesn't  depend  directly  on  la  Peyrade,  whereas  the  in- 
fluence he  exerts  in  the  12th  arrondissement  he  can 
employ  as  he  will." 

"And  suppose  he  willed,  after  we  have  feathered  his 
nest,"  said  Brigitte,  "to  work  his  influence  for  his  own 
election?     He  is  very  ambitious,  you  know." 

This  danger  did  not  fail  to  strike  the  mind  of  the 
future  legislator,  who  thought,  however,  that  he  might 
feel  some  security  in  the  honor  and  morality  of  la 
Peyrade. 

"A  man's  honor  can't  be  very  delicate,"  returned 
Brigitte,  "when  he  tries  to  get  out  of  a  bargain;  and 
this  fashion  of  dangling  a  bit  of  sugar  before  us  about 
getting  your  pamphlet  finished,  doesn't  please  me  at 
all.  Can't  you  get  Phellion  to  help  you,  and  do  without 
Theodose?  Or,  I  dare  say,  Madame  de  Godollo,  who 
knows  everybody  in  politics,  could  find  you  a  journalist 
—  they  say  there  are  plenty  of  them  out  at  elbows ;  a 
couple  of  hundred  francs  would  do  the  thing." 

"But  the  secret  would  get  into  the  papers,"  said 
Thuillier.  "No,  I  absolutely  must  have  Theodose;  he 
knows  that,  and  he  makes  these  conditions.  After  all, 
we  did  promise  him  Celeste,  and  it  is  only  fulfilling 
the  promise  a  year  earlier  —  what  am  I  saying?  —  a  few 
months,  a  few  weeks,  possibly;  for  the  king  may  dis- 
solve the  Chamber  before  any  one  expects  it." 

"But  suppose  Celeste  won't  have  him?"  objected 
Brigitte. 

"Celeste!      Celeste,    indeed!"    ejaculated    Thuillier; 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  295 

she  must  have  whomsoever  we  choose.  We  ought  to  have 
thought  of  that  when  we  made  the  engagement  with  la 
Peyrade ;  our  word  is  passed  now,  you  know.  Besides, 
if  the  child  is  allowed  to  choose  between  la  Peyrade  and 
Phellion  —  " 

"So  you  really  think,"  said  the  sceptical  old  maid, 
"that  if  Celeste  decides  for  Phellion  you  can  still  count 
on  la  Peyrade' s  devotion." 

"What  else  can  I  do?  Those  are  his  conditions. 
Besides,  the  fellow  has  calculated  the  whole  thing; 
he  knows  very  well  that  Felix  will  never  bring  him- 
self in  two  weeks  to  please  Celeste  by  going  to  confes- 
sion, and  unless  he  does,  that  little  monkey  will  never 
accept  him  for  a  husband.  La  Peyrade's  game  is  very 
clever." 

"Too  clever,"  said  Brigitte.  "Well,  settle  the  matter 
as  you  choose ;  I  shall  not  meddle ;  all  this  manoeuvring 
is  not  to  my  taste." 

Thuillier  went  to  see  Madame  Colleville,  and  intimated 
to  her  that  she  must  inform  Celeste  of  the  designs  upon 
her. 

Celeste  had  never  been  officially  authorized  to  indulge 
her  sentiment  for  Felix  Phellion.  Flavie,  on  the  con- 
trary, had  once  expressly  forbidden  her  to  encourage  the 
hopes  of  the  young  professor;  but  as,  on  the  part  of 
Madame  Thuillier,  her  godmother  and  her  confidant,  she 
knew  she  was  sustained  in  her  inclination,  she  had  let 
herself  gently  follow  it  without  thinking  very  seriously 
of  the  obstacles  her  choice  might  encounter.  When, 
therefore,  she  was  ordered  to  choose  at  once  between 
Felix  and  la  Peyrade,  the  simple-hearted  girl  was  at  first 
only  struck  by  the  advantages  of  one  half  of  the  alterna- 
tive, and  she  fancied  she  did  herself  a  great  service  by 
agreeing  to  an  arrangement  which  made  her  the  mistress 
of  her  own  choice  and  allowed  her  to  bestow  it  as  her 
heart  desired. 


296  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

But  la  Peyrade  was  not  mistaken  in  his  calculation 
when  he  reckoned  that  the  religious  intolerance  of  the 
young  girl  on  one  side,  and  the  philosophical  inflex- 
ibility of  Phellion's  son  on  the  other,  would  create  an 
invincible  obstacle  to  their  coining  together. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  297 


III. 

GOOD    BLOOD    CANNOT    LIE. 

The  evening  of  the  day  on  which  Flavie  had  commu- 
nicated to  Celeste  the  sovereign  orders  of  Thuillier,  the 
Phellions  called  to  spend  the  evening  with  Brigitte,  and 
a  very  sharp  engagement  took  place  between  the  two 
young  people.  Mademoiselle  Colleville  did  not  need  to 
be  told  by  her  mother  that  it  would  be  extremely  unbe- 
coming if  she  allowed  Felix  to  know  of  the  conditional 
approval  that  was  granted  to  their  sentiments.  Celeste 
had  too  much  delicacy,  and  too  much  real  religious  feel- 
ing to  wish  to  obtain  the  conversion  of  the  man  she  loved 
on  any  other  ground  than  that  of  his  conviction.  Their 
evening  was  therefore  passed  in  theological  debate ;  but 
love  is  so  strange  a  Proteus,  and  takes  so  many  and  such 
various  forms,  that  though  it  appeared  on  this  occasion 
in  a  black  gown  and  a  mob  cap,  it  was  not  at  all  as  un- 
graceful and  displeasing  as  might  have  been  imagined. 
But  Phellion  junior  was  in  this  encounter,  the  solemnity 
of  which  he  little  knew,  unlucky  and  blundering  to  the 
last  degree.  Not  only  did  he  concede  nothing,  but  he 
took  a  tone  of  airy  and  ironical  discussion,  and  ended 
by  putting  poor  Celeste  so  beside  herself  that  she  finally 
declared  an  open  rupture  and  forbade  him  to  appear  in 
her  presence  again. 

It  was  just  the  case  for  a  lover  more  experienced  than 
the  young  savant  to  reappear  the  very  next  day,  for 
young  hearts  are  never  so  near  to  understanding  each 
other  as  when  they  have  just  declared  the  necessity  of 
eternal   separation.     But  this   law  is  not  one  of   loga- 


298  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

rithms,  and  Felix  Phcllion,  being  incapable  of  guessing 
it,  thought  himself  positively  and  finally  banished;  so 
much  so,  that  during  the  fifteen  days  granted  to  the  poor 
girl  to  deliberate  (as  says  the  Code  in  the  matter  of 
beneficiary  bequests),  although  he  was  expected  day  by 
day,  and  from  minute  to  minute  by  Celeste,  who  gave  no 
more  thought  to  la  Peyrade  than  if  he  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  question,  the  deplorably  stupid  youth  did  not 
have  the  most  distant  idea  of  breaking  his  ban. 

Luckily  for  this  hopeless  lover,  a  beneficent  fairy  was 
watching  over  him,  and  the  evening  before  the  day  on 
which  the  young  girl  was  to  make  her  decision  the  fol- 
lowing affair  took  place. 

It  was  Sunday,  the  day  on  which  the  Thuilliers  still 
kept  up  their  weekly  receptions. 

Madame  Phellion,  convinced  that  the  housekeeping 
leakage,  vulgarly  called  "the  basket  dance,"  was  the 
ruin  of  the  best-regulated  households,  was  in  the  habit 
of  going  in  person  to  her  tradespeople.  From  time 
immemorial  in  the  Phellion  establishment,  Sunday  was 
the  day  of  the  pot-an~feu,  and  the  wife  of  the  great 
citizen,  in  that  intentionally  dowdy  costume  in  which 
good  housekeepers  bundle  themselves  when  they  go  to 
market,  was  prosaically  returning  from  a  visit  to  the 
butcher,  followed  by  her  cook  and  the  basket,  in  which 
lay  a  magnificent  cut  of  the  loin  of  beef.  Twice  had  she 
rung  her  own  doorbell,  and  terrible  was  the  storm  gather- 
ing on  the  head  of  the  foot-boy,  who  by  his  slowness  in 
opening  the  door  was  putting  his  mistress  in  a  situation 
less  tolerable  than  that  of  Louis  XIV.,  who  had  only 
almost  waited.  In  her  feverish  impatience  Madame 
Phellion  had  just  given  the  bell  a  third  and  ferocious 
reverberation,  when,  judge  of  her  confusion,  a  little  coupe 
drew  up  with  much  clatter  at  the  door  of  her  house,  and 
a  lady  descended,  whom  she  recognized,  at  this  untimely 
hour,  as  the  elegant  Comtesse  Torna  de  Godollo! 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  299 

Turning  a  purplish  scarlet,  the  unfortunate  bourgeoise 
lost  her  head,  and,  floundering  in  excuses,  she  was  about 
to  complicate  the  position  by  some  signal  piece  of  awk- 
wardness, when,  happily  for  her,  Phellion,  attracted  by 
the  noise  of  the  bell,  and  attired  in  a  dressing-gown  and 
Greek  cap,  came  out  of  his  study  to  inquire  what  was 
the  matter.  After  a  speech,  the  pompous  charm  of 
which  did  much  to  compensate  for  his  dishabille,  the 
great  citizen,  with  the  serenity  that  never  abandoned 
him,  offered  his  hand  very  gallantly  to  the  lady,  and 
having  installed  her  in  the  salon,  said :  — 

"May  I,  without  indiscretion,  ask  Madame  la  comtesse 
what  has  procured  for  us  the  unhoped-for  advantage  of 
this  visit?  " 

"I  have  come,"  said  the  lady,  "to  talk  with  Madame 
Phellion  on  a  matter  which  must  deeply  interest  her.  I 
have  no  other  way  of  meeting  her  without  witnesses ; 
and  therefore,  though  I  am  hardly  known  to  Madame 
Phellion,  I  have  taken  the  liberty  to  call  upon  her 
here." 

"Madame,  your  visit  is  a  great  honor  to  this  poor 
dwelling.  But  where  is  Madame  Phellion ! "  added  the 
worthy  man,  impatiently,  going  towards  the  door. 

"No,  I  beg  of  yon,  don't  disturb  her,"  said  the  coun- 
tess; "I  have  heedlessly  come  at  a  moment  when  she  is 
busy  with  household  cares.  Brigitte  has  been  my  edu- 
cator in  such  matters,  and  I  know  the  respect  we  ought 
to  pay  to  good  housekeepers.  Besides,  I  have  the 
pleasure  of  your  presence,  which  I  scarcely  expected." 

Before  Phellion  could  reply  to  these  obliging  words, 
Madame  Phellion  appeared.  A  cap  with  ribbons  had 
taken  the  place  of  the  market  bonnet,  and  a  large  shawl 
covered  the  other  insufficiencies  of  the  morning  toilet. 
When  his  wife  arrived,  the  great  citizen  made  as  though 
he  would  discreetly  retire. 

"Monsieur  Phellion,"  said  the  countess,  "you  are  not 


300  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

one  too  many  in  the  conference  I  desire  with  madame; 
on  the  contrary,  your  excellent  judgment  will  be  most 
useful  in  throwing  light  upon  a  matter  as  interesting  to 
you  as  to  your  wife.  I  allude  to  the  marriage  of  your 
son." 

"The  marriage  of  my  son!  "  cried  Madame  Phellion, 
with  a  look  of  astonishment;  "but  I  am  not  aware  that 
anything  of  the  kind  is  at  present  in  prospect." 

"The  marriage  of  Monsieur  Felix  with  Mademoiselle 
Celeste  is,  I  think,  one  of  your  strongest  desires  —  " 

"But  we  have  never,"  said  Phellion,  "taken  any  overt 
steps  for  that  object." 

"I  know  that  only  too  well,"  replied  the  countess; 
"on  the  contrary,  every  one  in  your  family  seems  to 
study  how  to  defeat  my  efforts  in  that  direction.  How- 
ever, one  thing  is  clear  in  spite  of  the  reserve,  and,  you 
must  allow  me  to  say  so,  the  clumsiness  with  which  the 
affair  has  been  managed,  and  that  is  that  the  young 
people  love  each  other,  and  they  will  both  be  unhappy  if 
they  do  not  marry.  Now,  to  prevent  this  catastrophe  is 
the  object  with  which  I  have  come  here  this  morning." 

"We  cannot,  madame,  be  otherwise  than  deeply  sen- 
sible of  the  interest  you  are  so  good  as  to  show  in  the 
happiness  of  our  son,"  said  Phellion;  "but,  in  truth,  this 
interest  —  " 

"Is  something  so  inexplicable,"  interrupted  the  coun- 
tess, "that  you  feel  a  distrust  of  it?  " 

"Oh!  madame!  "  said  Phellion,  bowing  with  an  air  of 
respectful  dissent. 

"But,"  continued  the  lady,  "the  explanation  of  my 
proceeding  is  very  simple.  I  have  studied  Celeste,  and 
in  that  dear  and  artless  child  I  find  a  moral  weight  and 
value  which  would  make  me  grieve  to  see  her  sacrificed." 

"You  are  right,  madame,"  said  Madame  Phellion. 
"Celeste  is,  indeed,  an  angel  of  sweetness." 

"As  for  Monsieur  Felix,  I  venture  to  interest  myself 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  301 

because,  in  the  first  place,  he  is  the  son  of  so  virtuous  a 
father  —  " 

"Oh,  madame!  I  entreat  —  "said  Phellion,  bowing 
again. 

" — and  he  also  attracts  me  by  the  awkwardness  of 
true  love,  which  appears  in  all  his  actions  and  all  his 
words.  We  mature  women  find  an  inexpressible  charm 
in  seeing  the  tender  passion  under  a  form  which  threatens 
us  with  no  deceptions  and  no  misunderstandings." 

"My  son  is  certainly  not  brilliant,"  said  Madame 
Phellion,  with  a  faint  tone  of  sharpness;  "he  is  not  a 
fashionable  young  man." 

"But  he  has  the  qualities  that  are  most  essential," 
replied  the  countess,  "and  a  merit  which  ignores  itself, 
—  a  thing  of  the  utmost  consequence  in  all  intellectual 
superiority  —  " 

"Really,  madame,"  said  Phellion,  "you  force  us  to 
hear  things  that  —  " 

"That  are  not  beyond  the  truth,"  interrupted  the  coun- 
tess. "Another  reason  which  leads  me  to  take  a  deep 
interest  in  the  happiness  of  these  young  people  is  that  I 
am  not  so  desirous  for  that  of  Monsieur  Theodose  de 
la  Peyrade,  who  is  false  and  grasping.  On  the  ruin  of 
their  young  hopes  that  man  is  counting  to  carry  out  his 
swindling  purposes." 

"It  is  quite  certain,"  said  Phellion,  "that  there  are 
dark  depths  in  Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade  where  light  does 
not  penetrate." 

"And  as  I  myself  had  the  misfortune  to  marry  a  man 
of  his  description,  the  thought  of  the  wretchedness  to 
which  Celeste  would  be  condemned  by  so  fatal  a  connec- 
tion, impels  me,  in  the  hope  of  saving  her,  to  the  char- 
itable effort  which  now,  I  trust,  has  ceased  to  surprise 
you." 

"Madame,"  said  Phellion,  "we  do  not  need  the  con- 
clusive explanations  by  which  you  illumine  your  conduct; 


302  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

but  as  to  the  faults  on  our  part,  which  have  thwarted 
your  generous  efforts,  I  must  declare  that  in  order  to 
avoid  committing  them  in  future,  it  seems  to  me  not  a 
little  desirable  that  you  should  plainly  indicate  them." 

"How  long  is  it,"  asked  the  countess,  "since  any  of 
your  family  have  paid  a  visit  to  the  Thuilliers?" 

"If  my  memory  serves  me,"  said  Phellion,  "I  think 
we  were  all  there  the  Sunday  after  the  dinner  for  the 
house-warming."    - 

"Fifteen  whole  days  of  absence!  "  exclaimed  the  coun- 
tess; "and  you  think  that  nothing  of  importance  could 
happen  in  fifteen  days?" 

"No,  indeed!  did  not  three  glorious  days  in  July, 
1830,  cast  down  a  perjured  dynasty  and  found  the  noble 
order  of  things  under  which  we  now  live  ?  " 

"You  see  it  yourself!"  said  the  countess.  "Now, 
tell  me,  during  that  evening,  fifteen  days  ago,  did  noth- 
ing serious  take  place  between  your  son  and  Celeste." 

"Something  did  occur,"  replied  Phellion, — "a  very 
disagreeable  conversation  on  the  subject  of  my  son's 
religious  opinions;  it  must  be  owned  that  our  good 
Celeste,  who  in  all  other  respects  has  a  charming  nature, 
is  a  trifle  fanatic  in  the  matter  of  piety." 

"I  agree  to  that,"  said  the  countess;  "but  she  was 
brought  up  by  the  mother  whom  you  know;  she  was 
never  shown  the  face  of  true  piety;  she  saw  only  the 
mimicry  of  it.  Repentant  Magdalens  of  the  Madame 
Colleville  species  always  assume  an  air  of  wishing  to 
retire  to  a  desert  with  their  death's-head  and  crossed 
bones.  They  think  they  can't  get  salvation  at  a  cheaper 
rate.  But  after  all,  what  did  Celeste  ask  of  Monsieur 
Felix?  Merely  that  he  would  read  '  The  Imitation  of 
Christ.'" 

"He  has  read  it,  madame,"  said  Phellion,  "and  he 
thinks  it  a  book  extremely  well  written ;  but  his  convic- 
tions —  and  that  is  a  misfortune  —  have  not  been  affected 
by  the  perusal." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  303 

"And  do  you  think  he  shows  much  cleverness  in  not 
assuring  his  mistress  of  some  little  change  in  his  inflex- 
ible convictions?" 

"My  son,  madame,  has  never  received  from  me  the 
slightest  lesson  in  cleverness  j  loyalty,  uprightness,  those 
are  the  principles  I  have  endeavored  to  inculcate  in 
him." 

"It  seems  to  me,  monsieur,  that  there  is  no  want 
of  loyalty  when,  in  dealing  with  a  troubled  mind,  we 
endeavor  to  avoid  wounding  it.  But  let  us  agree  that 
Monsieur  Felix  owed  it  to  himself  to  be  that  iron  door 
against  which  poor  Celeste's  supplications  beat  in  vain; 
was  that  a  reason  for  keeping  away  from  her  and  sulking 
in  his  tent  for  fifteen  whole  days  ?  Above  all,  ought  he 
to  have  capped  these  sulks  by  a  proceeding  which  I  can't 
forgive,  and  which  —  only  just  made  known  to  us  —  has 
struck  the  girl's  heart  with  despair,  and  also  with  a  feel- 
ing of  extreme  irritation?" 

"My  son  capable  of  any  such  act!  it  is  quite  impos- 
sible, madame!"  cried  Phellion.  "I  know  nothing  of 
this  proceeding:  but  I  do  not  hesitate  to  ailirm  that  you 
have  been  ill-informed." 

"And  yet,  nothing  is  more  certain.  Young  Colleville, 
who  came  home  to-day  for  his  half- holiday,  has  just  told 
us  that  Monsieur  Felix,  who  had  previously  gone  with  the 
utmost  punctuality  to  hear  him  recite  has  ceased  entirely 
to  have  anything  to  do  with  him.  Unless  your  son  is 
ill,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  this  neglect  is  the 
greatest  of  blunders,  in  the  situation  in  which  he  now 
stands  with  the  sister  he  ought  not  to  have  chosen  this 
moment  to  put  an  end  to  these  lessons." 

The  Phellions  looked  at  each  other  as  if  consulting 
how  to  reply. 

"My  son,"  said  Madame  Phellion,  "is  not  exactly  ill; 
but  since  you  mention  a  fact  which  is,  I  acknowledge, 
very  strange  and  quite  out  of  keeping  with  his  nature 


304  The  -Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

and  habits,  I  think  it  right  to  tell  you  that  from  the  day 
when  Celeste  seemed  to  signify  that  all  was  at  an  end 
between  them,  a  very  extraordinary  change  has  come 
over  Felix,  which  is  causing  Monsieur  Phellion  and 
myself  the  deepest  anxiety." 

"Yes,  madame,"  said  Phellion,  "the  young  man  is 
certainly  not  in  his  normal  condition." 

"But  what  is  the  matter  with  him?"  asked  the 
countess,  anxiously. 

"The  night  of  that  scene  with  Celeste,"  replied  Phellion, 
"after  his  return  home,  he  wept  a  flood  of  hot  tears  on 
his  mother's  bosom,  and  gave  us  to  understand  that  the 
happiness  of  his  whole  life  was  at  an  end." 

"And  yet,"  said  Madame  de  Godollo,  "nothing  very 
serious  happened ;  but  lovers  always  make  the  worst  of 
things." 

"No  doubt,"  said  Madame  Phellion;  "but  since  that 
night  Felix  has  not  made  the  slightest  allusion  to  his 
misfortune,  and  the  next  day  he  went  back  to  his  work 
with  a  sort  of  frenzy.     Does  that  seem  natural  to  you?  " 

"It  is  capable  of  explanation;  work  is  said  to  be  a 
great  consoler." 

"That  is  most  true,"  said  Phellion;  "but  in  Felix's 
whole  personality  there  is  something  excited,  and  yet 
repressed,  which  is  difficult  to  describe.  You  speak  to 
him,  and  he  hardly  seems  to  hear  you ;  he  sits  down  to 
table  and  forgets  to  eat,  or  takes  his  food  with  an 
absent-mindedness  which  the  medical  faculty  consider 
most  injurious  to  the  process  of  digestion;  his  duties, 
his  regular  occupations,  we  have  to  remind  him  of  —  him, 
so  extremely  regular,  so  punctual !  The  other  day,  when 
he  was  at  the  Observatory,  where  he  now  spends  all  his 
evenings,  only  coming  home  in  the  small  hours,  I  took 
it  upon  myself  to  enter  his  room  and  examine  his  papers. 
I  was  terrified,  madame,  at  finding  a  paper  covered  with 
algebraic  calculations  which,  by  their  vast  extent  ap- 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  305 

peared    to  me  to    go  beyond   the  limits  of  the   human 
intellect." 

"Perhaps,"  said  the  countess,  "he  is  on  the  road  to 
some  great  discovery." 

"Or  to  madness,"  said  Madame  Phellion,  in  a  low 
voice,  and  with  a  heavy  sigh. 

"That  is  not  probable,"  said  Madame  de  Godollo; 
"with  an  organization  so  calm  and  a  mind  so  well 
balanced,  he  runs  but  little  danger  of  that  misfortune. 
I  know  myself  of  another  danger  that  threatens  him 
to-morrow,  and  unless  we  can  take  some  steps  this  even- 
ing to  avert  it,  Celeste  is  positively  lost  to  him." 

"How  so?  "  said  the  husband  and  wife  together. 

"Perhaps  you  are  not  aware,"  replied  the  countess, 
"thatThuillier  and  his  sister  have  made  certain  promises 
to  Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade  about  Celeste?  " 

"We  suspected  as  much,"  replied  Madame  Phellion. 

"The  fulfilment  of  these  pledges  was  postponed  to  a 
rather  distant  period,  and  subordinated  to  certain  con- 
ditions. Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade,  after  enabling  them 
to  buy  the  house  near  the  Madeleine,  pledged  himself 
not' only  to  obtain  the  cross  for  Monsieur  Thuillier,  but 
to  write  in  his  name  a  political  pamphlet,  and  assist  him 
in  his  election  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  It  sounds 
like  the  romances  of  chivalry,  in  which  the  hero,  before 
obtaining  the  hand  of  the  princess,  is  compelled  to 
exterminate  a  dragon." 

"Madame  is  very  witty,"  said  Madame  Phellion, 
looking  at  her  husband,  who  made  her  a  sign  not  to 
interrupt. 

"I  have  no  time  now,"  said  the  countess;  "in  fact  it 
would  be  useless  to  tell  you  the  manoeuvres  by  which 
Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade  has  contrived  to  hasten  the 
period  of  this  marriage;  but  it  concerns  you  to  know 
that,  thanks  to  his  duplicity,  Celeste  is  being  forced  to 
choose  between  him   and  Monsieur  Felix;  fifteen  days 

20 


306  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

were  given  her  in  which  to  make  her  choice;  the  time 
expires  to-morrow,  and,  thanks  to  the  unfortunate  state 
of  feeling  into  which  your  son's  attitude  has  thrown  her, 
there  is  very  serious  danger  of  seeing  her  sacrifice  to  her 
wounded  feelings  the  better  sentiments  of  her  love  and 
her  instincts." 

4 'But  what  can  be  done  to  prevent  it?  "  asked  Phellion. 

" Fight,  monsieur;  come  this  evening  in  force  to  the 
Thuilliers';  induce  Monsieur  Felix  to  accompany  you; 
lecture  him  until  he  promises  to  be  a  little  more  flexible 
in  his  philosophical  opinions.  Paris,  said  Henri  IV.,  is 
surely  worth  a  mass.  But  let  him  avoid  all  such  ques- 
tions ;  he  can  certainly  find  in  his  heart  the  words  and 
tones  to  move  a  woman  who  loves  him;  it  requires  so 
little  to  satisfy  her!  I  shall  be  there  myself,  and  I  will 
help  him  to  my  utmost  ability;  perhaps,  under  the 
inspiration  of  the  moment,  I  may  think  of  some  way  to 
do  so  effectually.  One  thing  is  very  certain :  we  have  to 
fight  a  great  battle  to-night,  and  if  we  do  not  all  do  our 
duty  valorously,  la  Peyrade  may  win  it." 

"My  son  is  not  here,  madame,"  said  Phellion,  "and  I 
regret  it,  for  perhaps  your  generous  devotion  and  urgent 
words  would  succeed  in  shaking  off  his  torpor;  but,  at 
any  rate,  I  will  lay  before  him  the  gravity  of  the  situa- 
tion, and,  beyond  all  doubt,  he  will  accompany  us  to- 
night to  the  Thuilliers '." 

"It  is  needless  to  say,"  added  the  countess,  rising, 
"that  we  must  carefully  avoid  the  very  slightest  appear- 
ance of  collusion;  we  must  not  converse  together;  in. 
fact,  unless  it  can  be  done  in  some  casual  way,  it  would 
be  better  not  to  speak." 

"I  beg  you  to  rely,  madame,  upon  my  prudence," 
replied  Phellion,  "and  kindly  accept  the  assurance  —  " 

"Of  your  most  distinguished  sentiments,"  interrupted 
the  countess,  laughing. 

"No,  madame,"  replied  Phellion,  gravely,  "I  reserve 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  307 

that  formula  for  the  conclusion  of  my  letters;  I  beg 
you  to  accept  the  assurance  of  my  warmest  and  most 
unalterable  gratitude." 

"We  will  talk  of  that  when  we  are  out  of  danger,"  said 
Madame  de  Godollo,  moving  towards  the  door;  "and 
if  Madame  Phellion,  the  tenderest  and  most  virtuous 
of  mothers,  will  grant  me  a  little  place  in  her  esteem, 
1  shall  count  myself  more  than  repaid  for  my  trouble." 

Madame  Phellion  plunged  headlong  into  a  responsive 
compliment;  and  the  countess,  in  her  carriage,  was  at 
some  distance  from  the  house  before  Phellion  had  ceased 
to  offer  her  his  most  respectful  salutations. 

As  the  Latin-quarter  element  in  Brigitte's  salon  became 
more  rare  and  less  assiduous,  a  livelier  Paris  began  to 
infiltrate  it.  Among  his  colleagues  in  the  municipal 
council  and  among  the  upper  employes  of  the  prefecture 
of  the  Seine,  the  new  councillor  had  made  several  very 
important  recruits.  The  mayor,  and  the  deputy  mayors 
of  the  arrondissement,  on  whom,  after  his  removal  to 
the  Madeleine  quarter,  Thuillier  had  called,  hastened  to 
return  the  civility;  and  the  same  thiDg  happened  with 
the  superior  officers  of  the  first  legion.  The  house  itself 
had  produced  a  contingent;  and  several  of  the  new 
tenants  contributed,  by  their  presence,  to  change  the 
aspect  of  the  dominical  meetings.  Among  the  number 
we  must  mention  Rabourdin  [see  "Bureaucracy"],  the 
former  head  of  Thuillier' s  office  at  the  ministry  of 
finance.  Having  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  his  wife, 
whose  salon,  at  an  earlier  period,  checkmated  that  of 
Madame  Colleville,  Rabourdin  occupied  as  a  bachelor 
the  third  floor,  above  the  apartment  let  to  Cardot,  the 
notary.  As  the  result  of  an  odious  slight  to  his  just 
claims,  Rabourdin  had  voluntarily  resigned  his  public 
functions.  At  this  time,  when  he  again  met  Thuillier, 
he  was  director  of  one  of  those  numerous  projected  rail- 
ways, the  construction  of  which  is   always  delayed  by 


308  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

either  parliamentary  rivalry  or  parliamentary  indecision. 
Let  us  say,  in  passing,  that  the  meeting  with  this  able 
administrator,  now  become  an  important  personage  in 
the  financial  world,  was  an  occasion  to  the  worthy  and 
honest  Phellion  to  display  once  more  his  noble  character. 
At  the  time  of  the  resignation  to  which  Rabourdin  had 
felt  himself  driven,  Phellion  alone,  of  all  the  clerks  in 
the  office,  had  stood  by  him  in  his  misfortunes.  Being 
now  in  a  position  to  bestow  a  great  number  of  places, 
Rabourdin,  on  meeting  once  more  his  faithful  subordinate, 
hastened  to  offer  him  a  position  both  easy  and  lucrative. 

"Mossieu,"  said  Phellion,  "your  benevolence  touches 
me  and  honors  me,  but  my  frankness  owes  you  an  avowal, 
which  I  beg  you  not  to  take  in  ill  part:  I  do  not  believe 
in  'railways,'  as  the  English  call  them." 

"That's  an  opinion  to  which  you  have  every  right," 
said  Rabourdin,  smiling;  "but,  meanwhile,  until  the 
contrary  is  proved,  we  pay  the  employes  in  our  office 
well,  and  I  should  be  glad  to  have  you  with  me  in  that 
capacity.  I  know  by  experience  that  you  are  a  man  on 
whom  I  can  count." 

"Mossieu,"  returned  the  great  citizen,  "I  did  my 
duty  at  that  time,  and  nothing  more.  As  for  the  offer 
you  have  been  so  good  as  to  make  to  me,  I  cannot  accept 
it;  satisfied  with  my  humble  fortunes,  I  feel  neither  the 
need  nor  the  desire  to  re-enter  an  administrative  career; 
and,  in  common  with  the  Latin  poet,  I  may  say,  Claudite 
jam  rivos,  pueri,  sat  prata  biberunt." 

Thus  elevated  in  the  character  of  its  habitues,  the 
salon  Thuillier  still  needed  a  new  element  of  life. 
Thanks  to  the  help  of  Madame  de  Godollo,  a  born 
organizer,  who  successfully  put  to  profit  the  former  con- 
nection of  Colleville  with  the  musical  world,  a  few  artists 
came  to  make  diversion  from  bouillotte  and  boston.  Old- 
fashioned  and  venerable,  those  two  games  were  forced 
to  beat  a  retreat  before  whist,  the  only  manner,  said  the 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  309 

Hungarian  countess,  in  which  respectable  people  can  kill 
time. 

Like  Louis  XVI.,  who  began  by  putting  his  own 
hand  to  reforms  which  subsequently  engulfed  his  throne, 
Brigitte  had  encouraged,  at  first,  this  domestic  revolu- 
tion ;  the  need  of  sustaining  her  position  suitably  in  the 
new  quarter  to  which  she  had  emigrated  had  made  her 
docile  to  all  suggestions  of  comfort  and  elegance.  But 
the  day  on  which  occurred  the  scene  we  are  about  to  wit- 
ness, an  apparently  trivial  detail  had  revealed  to  her  the 
danger  of  the  declivity  on  which  she  stood.  The  greater 
number  of  the  new  guests,  recently  imported  by  Thuillier, 
knew  nothing  of  his  sister's  supremacy  in  his  home. 
On  arrival,  therefore,  they  all  asked  Thuillier  to  present 
them  to  madame,  and,  naturally,  Thuillier  could  not  say 
to  them  that  his  wife  was  a  figure-head  who  groaned 
under  the  iron  hand  of  a  Richelieu,  to  whom  the  whole 
household  bent  the  knee.  It  was  therefore  not  until  the 
first  homage  rendered  to  the  sovereign  de  jure  was  paid, 
that  the  new-comers  were  led  up  to  Brigitte,  and  by 
reason  of  the  stiffness  which  displeasure  at  this  mis- 
placement of  power  gave  to  her  greeting  they  were 
scarcely  encouraged  to  pay  her  any  further  attentions. 
Quick  to  perceive  this  species  of  overthrow,  Queen 
Elizabeth  said  to  herself,  with  that  profound  instinct  of 
domination  which  was  her  ruling  passion :  — 

"If  I  don't  take  care  I  shall  soon  be  nobody  in  this 
house." 

Burrowing  into  that  idea,  she  came  to  think  that  if 
the  project  of  making  a  common  household  with  la 
Peyrade,  then  Celeste's  husband,  were  carried  out,  the 
situation  which  was  beginning  to  alarm  her  would  be- 
come  even  worse.  From  that  moment,  and  by  sudden 
intuition,  Felix  Phellion,  that  good  young  man,  with  his 
head  too  full  of  mathematics  ever  to  become  a  formidable 
rival  to  her  sovereignty,  seemed  to  her  a  far  better  match 


310  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

than  the  enterprising  lawyer,  and  she  was  the  first,  on 
seeing  the  Phellion  father  and  mother  arrive  without  the 
son,  to  express  regret  at  his  absence.  Brigitte,  how- 
ever, was  not  the  only  one  to  feel  the  injury  the  luckless 
professor  was  doing  to  his  prospects  in  thus  keeping 
away  from  her  reception.  Madame  Thuillier,  with  simple 
candor,  and  Celeste  with  feigned  reserve,  both  made 
manifest  their  displeasure.  As  for  Madame  de  Godollo, 
who,  in  spite  of  a  very  remarkable  voice,  usually  required 
much  pressing  before  she  would  sing  (the  piano  having 
been  opened  since  her  reign  began),  she  now  went  up  to 
Madame  Phellion  and  asked  her  to  accompany  her,  and 
between  two  verses  of  a  song  she  said  in  her  ear :  — 

"Why  is  n't  your  son  here?  " 

"He  is  coming,"  said  Madame  Phellion.  "His  father 
talked  to  him  very  decidedly;  but  to-night  there  happens 
to  be  a  conjunction  of  I  don't  know  what  planets ;  it  is 
a  great  night  at  the  Observatory,  and  he  did  not  feel 
willing  to  dispense  with  —  " 

"It  is  inconceivable  that  a  man  should  be  so  foolish! " 
exclaimed  Madame  de  Godollo;  "wasn't  theology  bad 
enough,  that  he  must  needs  bring  in  astronomy  too  ?  " 

And  her  vexation  gave  to  her  voice  so  vibrating  a  tone 
that  her  song  ended  in  the  midst  of  what  the  English  call 
a  thunder  of  applause.  La  Peyrade,  who  feared  her 
extremely,  was  not  one  of  the  last,  when  she  returned  to 
her  place  to  approach  her,  and  express  his  admiration; 
but  she  received  his  compliments  with  a  coldness  so 
near  incivility  that  their  mutual  hostility  was  greatly 
increased.  La  Peyrade  turned  away  to  console  himself 
with  Madame  Colleville,  who  had  still  too  many  preten- 
sions to  beauty  not  to  be  the  enemy  of  a  woman  made 
to  intercept  all  homage. 

"So  you  also,  you  think  that  woman  sings  well?" 
she  said,  contemptuously,  to  Theodose. 

"At  any  rate,  I  have  been  to  tell  her  so,"  replied  la 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  311 

Peyrade,  "because  without  her,  in  regard  to  Brigitte, 
there's  no  security.  But  do  just  look  at  your  Celeste; 
her  eyes  never  leave  that  door,  and  every  time  a  tray  is 
brought  in,  though  it  is  an  hour  at  least  since  the  last 
guest  came,  her  face  expresses  her  disappointment." 

We  must  remark,  in  passing,  that  since  the  reign  of 
Madame  de  Godollo  trays  were  passed  round  on  the 
Sunday  reception  days,  and  that  without  scrimping ;  on 
the  contrary,  they  were  laden  with  ices,  cakes,  and  syrups, 
from  Taurade's,  then  the  best  confectioner. 

"Don't  harass  me!  "  cried  Flavie.  "1  know  very  well 
what  that  foolish  girl  has  in  her  mind ;  and  your  marriage 
will  take  place  only  too  soon." 

"But  you  know  it  is  not  for  myself  I  make  it,"  said 
la  Peyrade;  "it  is  a  necessity  for  the  future  of  all  of 
us.  Come,  come,  there  are  tears  in  your  eyes !  I  shall 
leave  you;  you  are  not  reasonable.  The  devil!  as  that 
Prudhomme  of  a  Phellion  says,  'Whoso  wants  the  end 
wants  the  means.'  " 

And  he  went  toward  the  group  composed  of  Celeste, 
Madame  Thuillier,  Madame  de  Godollo,  Colleville,  and 
Phellion.  Madame  Colleville  followed  him ;  and,  under 
the  influence  of  the  feeling  of  jealousy  she  had  just  shown, 
she  became  a  savage  mother. 

"Celeste,"  she  said,  "why  don't  you  sing?  These 
gentlemen  wish  to  hear  you." 

"Oh,  mamma!  "  cried  the  girl,  "how  can  I  sing  after 
Madame  de  Godollo,  with  my  poor  thread  of  a  voice? 
Besides,  you  know  I  have  a  cold." 

"That  is  to  say  that,  as  usual,  you  make  yourself  pre- 
tentious and  disagreeable ;  people  sing  as  they  can  sing ; 
all  voices  have  their  own  merits." 

"My  dear,"  said  Colleville,  who,  having  just  lost 
twenty  francs  at  the  card-tables,  found  courage  in  his 
ill-humor  to  oppose  his  wife,  "that  saying,  'People  sing 
as  they  can  sing  '  is  a  bourgeois  maxim.     People  sing 


812  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

with  a  voice,  if  they  have  one;  but  they  don't  sing  after 
such  a  magnificent  opera  voice  as  that  of  Madame  la 
comtesse.  For  my  part,  I  readily  excuse  Celeste  for  not 
warbling  to  us  one  of  her  sentimental  little  ditties." 

"Then  it  is  well  worth  while,"  said  Flavie,  leaving  the 
group,  "to  spend  so  much  money  on  expensive  masters 
who  are  good  for  nothing." 

"So,"  said  Colleville,  resuming  the  conversation  which 
the  invasion  of  Flavie  had  interrupted,  "  Felix  no  longer 
inhabits  this  earth;  he  lives  among  the  stars?" 

"My  dear  and  former  colleague,"  said  Phellion,  "I 
am,  as  you  are,  annoyed  with  my  son  for  neglecting,  as 
he  does,  the  oldest  friends  of  his  family ;  and  though  the 
contemplation  of  those  great  luminous  bodies  suspended 
in  space  by  the  hand  of  the  Creator  presents,  in  my 
opinion,  higher  interest  than  it  appears  to  have  to  your 
more  eager  brain,  I  think  that  Felix,  by  not  coming  here 
to-night,  as  he  promised  me  he  would,  shows  a  want  of 
propriety,  about  which,  I  can  assure  you  I  shall  speak 
my  mind." 

"Science,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "is  a  fine  thing,  but  it 
has,  unfortunately,  the  attribute  of  making  bears  and 
monomaniacs." 

"Not  to  mention,"  said  Celeste,  "that  it  destroys  all 
religious  sentiments." 

"You  are  mistaken  there,  my  dear  child,"  said  Madame 
de  Godollo.  "Pascal,  who  was  himself  a  great  example 
of  the  falseness  of  your  point  of  view,  says,  if  I  am  not 
mistaken,  that  a  little  science  draws  us  from  religion, 
but  a  great  deal  draws  us  back  to  it." 

"And  yet,  madame,"  said  Celeste,  "every  one  admits 
that  Monsieur  Felix  is  really  very  learned;  when  he 
helped  my  brother  with  his  studies  nothing  could  be,  so 
Francois  told  me,  clearer  or  more  comprehensible  than 
his  explanations;  and  you  see,  yourself,  he  is  not  the 
more  religious  for  that." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  313 

"I  tell  you,  my  dear  child,  that  Monsieur  Felix  is  not 
irreligious;  and  with  a  little  gentleness  and  patience 
nothing  would  be  easier  than  to  bring  him  back." 

"Bring  back  a  savant  to  the  duties  of  religion!  "  ex- 
claimed la  Peyrade.  "Really,  madame,  that  seem3  to 
me  very  difficult.  These  gentlemen  put  the  object  of 
their  studies  before  everything  else.  Tell  a  geometrician 
or  a  geologist,  for  example,  that  the  Church  demands, 
imperatively,  the  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath  by  the  sus- 
pension of  all  species  of  work,  and  they  will  shrug  their 
shoulders,  though  God  himself  did  not  disdain  to  rest 
from  his  labors." 

"So  that  in  not  coming  here  this  evening,"  said 
Celeste,  naively,  "Monsieur  Felix  commits  not  only  a 
fault  against  good  manners,  but  a  sin." 

"But,  my  dearest,"  said  Madame  de  Godollo,  "do  you 
think  that  our  meeting  here  this  evening  to  sing  ballads 
and  eat  ices  and  say  evil  of  our  neighbor  —  which  is  the 
customary  habit  of  salons  —  is  more  pleasing  to  God 
than  to  see  a  man  of  science  in  his  observatory  busied 
in  studying  the  magnificent  secrets  of  His  creation  ?  " 

"There's  a  time  for  all  things,"  said  Celeste;  "and, 
as  Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade  says,  God  himself  did  not 
disdain  to  rest." 

"But,  my  love,"  said  Madame  de  Godollo,  "God  has 
time  to  do  so;  he  is  eternal." 

"That,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "is  one  of  the  wittiest 
impieties  ever  uttered;  those  are  the  reasons  that  the 
world's  people  put  forth.  They  interpret  and  explain 
away  the  commands  of  God,  even  those  that  are  most 
explicit  and  imperative;  they  take  them,  leave  them,  or 
choose  among  them;  the  free-thinker  subjects  them  to 
his  lordly  revision,  and  from  free-thinking  the  distance 
is  short  to  free  actions." 

During  this  harangue  of  the  barrister  Madame  de 
Godollo  had  looked  at  the  clock ;  it  then  said  half-past 


314  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

eleven.  The  salon  began  to  empty.  Only  one  card-table 
was  still  going  on,  Minard,  Thuillier,  and  two  of  the 
new  acquaintances  being  the  players.  Phellion  had  just 
quitted  the  group  with  which  he  had  so  far  been  sitting, 
to  join  his  wife,  who  was  talking  with  Brigitte  in  a 
corner;  by  the  vehemence  of  his  pantomimic  action  it 
was  easy  to  see  that  he  was  filled  with  some  virtuous 
indignation.  Everything  seemed  to  show  that  all  hope 
of  seeing  the  arrival  of  the  tardy  lover  was  decidedly 
over. 

"Monsieur,"  said  the  countess  to  la  Peyrade,  "do  you 
consider  the  gentlemen  attached  to  Saint-Jacques  du  Haut 
Pas  in  the  rue  des  Postes  good  Catholics  ?  " 

"Undoubtedly,"  replied  the  barrister,  "religion  has  no 
more  loyal  supporters." 

"This  morning,"  continued  the  countess,  "I  had  the 
happiness  to  be  received  by  Pere  Anselme.  He  is 
thought  the  model  of  all  Christian  virtues,  and  yet  the 
good  father  is  a  very  learned  mathematician." 

"I  have  not  said,  madame,  that  the  two  qualities  were 
absolutely  incompatible." 

"But  you  did  say  that  a  true  Christian  could  not  attend 
to  any  species  of  work  on  Sunday.  If  so,  Pere  Anselme 
must  be  an  unbeliever;  for  when  I  was  admitted  to  his 
room  I  found  him  standing  before  a  blackboard  with  a 
bit  of  chalk  in  his  hand,  busy  with  a  problem  which  was, 
no  doubt,  knotty,  for  the  board  was  three-parts  covered 
with  algebraic  signs;  and  I  must  add  that  he  did  not 
seem  to  care  for  the  scandal  this  ought  to  cause,  for  he 
had  with  him  an  individual  whom  I  am  not  allowed  to 
name,  a  younger  man  of  science,  of  great  promise,  who 
was  sharing  his  profane  occupation." 

'  Celeste  and  Madame  Thuillier  looked  at  each  other, 
and  both  saw  a  gleam  of  hope  in  the  other's  eyes. 

"Why  can't  you  tell  us  the  name  of  that  young  man 
of  science?"  Madame  Thuillier  ventured  to  say,  for  she 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  315 

never  put  any  diplomacy  into  the  expression  of  her 
thoughts. 

"Because  he  has  not,  like  Pere  Anselme,  the  saintli- 
ness  which  would  absolve  him  in  the  eyes  of  monsieur 
here  for  this  flagrant  violation  of  the  Sabbath.  Besides," 
added  Madame  de  Godollo,  in  a  significant  manner,  "he 
asked  me  not  to  mention  that  I  had  met  him  there." 

"Then  you  know  a  good  many  scientific  young  men?  " 
said  Celeste,  interrogatively;  "this  one  and  Monsieur 
Felix  —  that  makes  two." 

"My  dear  love,"  said  the  countess,  "you  are  an  in- 
quisitive little  girl,  and  you  will  not  make  me  say  what 
I  do  not  choose  to  say,  especially  after  a  confidence  that 
Pere  Anselme  made  to  me ;  for  if  I  did,  your  imagination 
would  at  once  set  off  at  a  gallop." 

The  gallop  had  already  started,  and  every  word  the 
countess  said  only  added  to  the  anxious  eagerness  of 
the  young  girl. 

"As  for  me,"  said  la  Peyrade,  sarcastically,  "I 
should  n't  be  at  all  surprised  if  Pere  Anselme' s  young 
collaborator  was  that  very  Felix  Phellion.  Voltaire 
always  kept  very  close  relations  with  the  Jesuits  who 
brought  him  up;  but  he  never  talked  religion  with 
them." 

"Well,  my  young  savant  does  talk  of  it  to  his  vener- 
able brother  in  science;  he  submits  his  doubts  to  him; 
in  fact,  that  was  the  beginning  of  their  scientific 
intimacy." 

"And  does  Pere  Anselme,"  asked  Celeste,  "hope  to 
convert  him  ?  " 

"He  is  sure  of  it,"  replied  the  countess.  "His  young 
collaborator,  apart  from  a  religious  education  which  he 
certainly  never  had,  has  been  brought  up  to  the  highest 
principles;  he  knows,  moreover,  that  his  conversion  to 
religion  would  make  the  happiness  of  a  charming  girl 
whom  he  loves,  and  who  loves  him.     Now,  my  dear,  you 


316  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

will  not  get  another  word  out  of  me,  and  you  may  think 
what  you  like." 

"Oh!  godmother!"  whispered  Celeste,  yielding  to  the 
freshness  of  her  feelings,  "suppose  it  were  he!  " 

And  the  tears  filled  her  eyes  as  she  pressed  Madame 
Thuillier's  hand. 

At  this  moment  the  servant  threw  open  the  door  of  the 
salon,  and,  singular  complication!  announced  Monsieur 
Felix  Phellion. 

The  young  professor  entered  the  room,  bathed  in  per- 
spiration, his  cravat  in  disorder,  and  himself  out  of 
breath. 

"A  pretty  hour,"  said  Phellion,  sternly,  "to  present 
yourself." 

"Father,"  said  Felix,  moving  to  the  side  of  the  room 
where  Madame  Thuillier  and  Celeste  were  seated,  "I 
could  not  leave  before  the  end  of  the  phenomenon;  and 
then  I  could  n't  find  a  carriage,  and  I  have  run  the  whole 
way." 

"Your  ears  ought  to  have  burned  as  you  came,"  said 
la  Peyrade,  "for  you  have  been  for  the  last  half-hour  in 
the  minds  of  these  ladies,  and  a  great  problem  has  been 
started  about  you." 

Felix  did  not  answer.  He  saw  Brigitte  entering  the 
salon  from  the  dining-room  where  she  had  gone  to  tell 
the  man-servant  not  to  bring  in  more  trays,  and  he 
hurried  to  greet  her. 

After  listening  to  a  few  reproaches  for  the  rarity  of 
his  visits  and  receiving  forgiveness  in  a  very  cordial 
"Better  late  than  never,"  he  turned  towards  his  pole, 
and  was  much  astonished  to  hear  himself  addressed  by 
Madame  de  Godollo  as  follows :  — 

"Monsieur,"  she  said,  "I  hope  you  will  pardon  the 
indiscretion  I  have,  in  the  heat  of  conversation,  com- 
mitted about  you.  I  have  told  these  ladies  where  I  met 
you  this  morning." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  317 

"Met  me?  "  said  Felix;  "  if  I  had  the  honor  to  meet 
you,  madame,  I  did  not  see  you." 

An  almost  imperceptible  smile  flickered  on  laPeyrade's 
lips. 

"You  saw  me  well  enough  to  ask  me  to  keep  silence 
as  to  where  I  had  met  you;  but,  at  any  rate,  I  did  not 
go  beyond  a  simple  statement;  I  said  you  saw  Pere 
Anselme  sometimes,  and  had  certain  scientific  relations 
with  him;  also  that  you  defended  your  religious  doubts 
to  him  as  you  do  to  Celeste." 

"Pere  Anselme!"  said  Felix,  stupidly. 

"Yes,  Pere  Anselme,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "a  great. math- 
ematician who  does  not  despair  of  converting  you. 
Mademoiselle  Celeste  wept  for  joy." 

Felix  looked  around  him  with  a  bewildered  air. 
Madame  de  Godollo  fixed  upon  him  a  pair  of  eyes  the 
language  of  which  a  poodle  could  have  understood. 

"I  wish,""  he  said  finally,  "I  could  have  given  that  joy 
to  Mademoiselle  Celeste,  but  I  think,  madame,  you  are 
mistaken." 

"Ah!  monsieur,  then  I  must  be  more  precise,"  said 
the  countess,  "and  if  your  modesty  still  induces  you  to 
hide  a  step  that  can  only  honor  you,  you  can  contradict 
me;  I  will  bear  the  mortification  of  having  divulged  a 
secret  which,  I  acknowledge,  you  trusted  implicitly  to 
my  discretion." 

Madame  Thuillier  and  Celeste  were  truly  a  whole 
drama  to  behold ;  never  were  doubt  and  eager  expecta- 
tion more  plainly  depicted  on  the  human  face.  Measur- 
ing her  words  deliberately,  Madame  de  Godollo  thus 
continued :  — 

"I  said  to  these  ladies,  because  I  know  how  deep  an 
interest  they  take  in  your  salvation,  and  because  you  are 
accused  of  boldly  defying  the  commandments  of  God  by 
working  on'  Sundays,  that  I  had  met  you  this  morning 
at  the  house  of   Pere  Anselme,    a   mathematician   like 


318  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

yourself,  with  whom  you  were  busy  in  solving  a  prob- 
lem; I  said  that  your  scientific  intercourse  with  that 
saintly  and  enlightened  man  had  led  to  other  explana- 
tions between  you ;  that  you  had  submitted  to  him  your 
religious  doubts,  and  he  did  not  despair  of  removing 
them.  In  the  confirmation  you  can  give  of  my  words 
there  is  nothing,  I  am  sure,  to  wound  your  self-esteem. 
The  matter  was  simply  a  surprise  you  intended  for 
Celeste,  and  I  have  had  the  stupidity  to  divulge  it.  But 
when  she  hears  you  admit  the  truth  of  my  words  you  will 
have  given  her  such  happiness  that  I  shall  hope  to  be 
forgiven." 

"Come,  monsieur,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "there's  nothing 
absurd  or  mortifying  in  having  sought  for  light;  you,  so 
honorable  and  so  truly  an  enemy  to  falsehood,  you  can- 
not deny  what  madame  affirms  with  such  decision." 

"Well,"  said  Felix,  after  a  moment's  hesitation,  "will 
you,  Mademoiselle  Celeste,  allow  me  to  say  a  few  words 
to  you  in  private,  without  witnesses?  " 

Celeste  rose,  after  receiving  an  approving  sign  from 
Madame  Thuillier.  Felix  took  her  hand  and  led  her  to 
the  recess  of  the  nearest  window. 

"Celeste,"  he  said,  "I  entreat  you:  wait!  See,"  he 
added,  pointing  to  the  constellation  of  Ursa  Minor, 
"beyond  those  visible  stars  a  future  lies  before  us;  I  will 
place  you  there.  As  for  Pere  Anselme,  I  cannot  admit 
what  has  been  said,  for  it  is  not  true.  It  is  an  invented 
tale.     But  be  patient  with  me;  you  shall  soon  know  all." 

"He  is  mad!  "  said  the  young  girl,  in  tones  of  despair, 
as  she  resumed  her  place  beside  Madame  Thuillier. 

Felix  confirmed  this  judgment  by  rushing  frantically 
from  the  salon,  without  perceiving  the  emotion  in  which 
his  father  and  his  mother  started  after  him.  After  this 
sudden  departure,  which  stupefied  everybody,  la  Peyrade 
approached  Madame  de  Godollo  very  respectfully,  and 
said  to  her :  — 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  319 

"You  must  admit,  madame,  that  it  is  difficult  to  drag  a 
man  from  the  water  when  he  persists  in  being  drowned." 

"I  had  no  idea  until  this  moment  of  such  utter  sim- 
plicity," replied  the  countess;  "it  is  too  silly.  I  pass 
over  to  the  enemy ;  and  with  that  enemy  I  am  ready  and 
desirous  to  have,  whenever  he  pleases,  a  frank  and  honest 
explanation." 


320  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


IV. 

HUNGARY    VERSUS    PROVENCE. 

The  next  day  The'odose  felt  himself  possessed  by  two 
curiosities :  How  would  Celeste  behave  as  to  the  option 
she  had  accepted?  and  this  Comtesse  Torna  de  Godollo, 
what  did  she  mean  by  what  she  had  said;  and  what  did 
she  want  with  him? 

The  first  of  these  questions  seemed,  undoubtedly,  to 
have  the  right  of  way,  and  yet,  by  some  secret  instinct, 
la  Peyrade  felt  more  keenly  drawn  toward  the  conclusion 
of  the  second  problem.  He  decided,  therefore,  to  take 
his  first  step  in  that  direction,  fully  understanding  that 
he  could  not  too  carefully  arm  himself  for  the  interview 
to  which  the  countess  had  invited  him. 

The  morning  had  been  rainy,  and  this  great  calculator 
was,  of  course,  not  ignorant  how  much  a  spot  of  mud, 
tarnishing  the  brilliancy  of  varnished  boots,  could  lower 
a  man  in  the  opinion  of  some.  He  therefore  sent  his 
porter  for  a  cabriolet,  and  about  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  he  drove  from  the  rue  Saint-Dominique-d'Enfer 
toward  the  elegant  latitudes  of  the  Madeleine.  It  may 
well  be  believed  that  certain  cares  had  been  bestowed 
upon  his  toilet,  which  ought  to  present  a  happy  medium 
between  the  negligent  ease  of  a  morning  costume  and  the 
ceremonious  character  of  an  evening  suit.  Condemned 
by  his  profession  to  a  white  cravat,  which  he  rarely  laid 
aside,  and  not  venturing  to  present  himself  in  anything 
but  a  dress-coat,  he  felt  himself  being  drawn,  of  neces- 
sity, to  one  of  the  extremes  he  desired  to  avoid.  How- 
ever by  buttoning  up  his  coat  and  wearing  tan  instead 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  321 

of  straw-colored  gloves,  he  managed  to  unsolemnize  him- 
self, and  to  avoid  that  provincial  air  which  a  man  in  full 
dress  walking  the  streets  of  Paris  while  the  sun  is  above 
the  horizon  never  fails  to  convey. 

The  wary  diplomatist  was  careful  not  to  drive  to  the 
house  where  he  was  going.  He  was  unwilling  to  be  seen 
from  the  countess's  entresol  issuing  from  a  hired  cab, 
and  from  the  first  floor  he  feared  to  be  discovered  stop- 
ping short  on  his  way  up  at  the  lower  floor, —  a  proceeding 
which  could  not  fail  to  give  rise  to  countless  conjectures. 

He  therefore  ordered  the  driver  to  pull  up  at  the  corner 
of  the  rue  Royale,  whence,  along  a  pavement  that  was 
now  nearly  dry,  he  picked  his  way  on  tiptoe  to  the 
house.  It  so  chanced  that  he  was  not  seen  by  either  the 
porter  or  his  wife ;  the  former  being  beadle  of  the  church 
of  the  Madeleine,  was  absent  at  a  service,  and  the  wife 
had  just  gone  up  to  show  a  vacant  apartment  to  a  lodger. 
Theodose  was  therefore  able  to  glide  unobserved  to  the 
door  of  the  sanctuary  he  desired  to  penetrate.  A  soft 
touch  of  his  hand  to  the  silken  bell-rope  caused  a  sound 
which  echoed  from  the  interior  of  the  apartment.  A  few 
seconds  elapsed,  and  then  another  and  more  imperious 
bell  of  less  volume  seemed  to  him  a  notification- to  the 
maid  that  her  delay  in  opening  the  door  was  displeasing 
to  her  mistress.  A  moment  later,  a  waiting-woman,  of 
middle  age,  and  too  well  trained  to  dress  like  a  soubrette 
of  comedy,  opened  the  door  to  him. 

The  lawyer  gave  his  name,  and  the  woman  ushered 
him  into  a  dining-room,  severely  luxurious,  where  she 
asked  him  to  wait.  A  moment  later,  however,  she 
returned,  and  admitted  him  into  the  most  coquettish  and 
splendid  salon  it  was  possible  to  insert  beneath  the  low 
ceilings  of  an  entresol.  The  divinity  of  the  place  was 
seated  before  a  writing-table  covered  with  a  Venetian 
cloth,  in  which  gold  glittered  in  little  spots  among  the 
dazzling  colors  of  the  tapestry. 

21 


322  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Will  you  allow  me,  monsieur,  to  finish  a  letter  of 
some  importance?"    she  said. 

The  barrister  bowed  in  sign  of  assent.  The  handsome 
Hungarian  then  concluded  a  note  on  blue  English  paper, 
which  she  placed  in  an  envelope;  after  sealing  it  care- 
fully, she  rang  the  bell.  The  maid  appeared  immediately 
and  lighted  a  little  spirit  lamp;  above  the  lamp  was  sus- 
pended a  sort  of  tiny  crucible,  in  which  was  a  drop  of 
sealing-wax;  as  soon  as  this  had  melted,  the  maid  poured 
it  on  the  envelope,  presenting  to  her  mistress  a  seal  with 
armorial  bearings.  This  the  countess  imprinted  on  the 
wax  with  her  own  beautiful  hands,  and  then  said :  — 

"Take  the  letter  at  once  to  that  address." 

The  woman  made  a  movement  to  take  the  letter,  but, 
either  from  haste  or  inadvertence,  the  paper  fell  from  her 
hand  close  to  la  Peyrade's  feet.  He  stooped  hastily  to 
pick  it  up,  and  read  the  direction  involuntarily.  It  bore 
the  words,  "His  Excellency  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs;  "  the  significant  words,  "For  him  only,"  written 
higher  up,  seemed  to  give  this  missive  a  character  of 
intimacy. 

"Pardon,  monsieur,"  said  the  countess,  receiving  the 
paper,  which  he  had  the  good  taste  to  return  to  her  own 
hands  in  order  to  show  his  eagerness  to  serve  her.  "Be 
so  good,  mademoiselle,  as  to  carry  that  in  a  way  not  to 
lose  it,"  she  added  in  a  dry  tone  to  the  unlucky  maid. 
The  countess  then  left  her  writing-table  and  took  her 
seat  on  a  sofa  covered  with  pearl-gray  satin. 

During  these  proceedings  la  Peyrade  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  making  an  inventory  of  all  the  choice  things  by 
which  he  was  surrounded.  Paintings  by  good  masters 
detached  themselves  from  walls  of  even  tone;  on  a  pier- 
table  stood  a  very  tall  Japanese  vase;  before  the  win- 
dows the  jardinieres  were  filled  with  lilium  rubrum, 
showing  its  handsome  reversely  curling  petals  sur- 
mounted by  white  and  red  camellias  and  a  dwarf  mag- 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  323 

nolia  from  China,  with  flowers  of  sulphur  white  with 
scarlet  edges.  In  a  corner  was  a  stand  of  arms,  of 
curious  shapes  and  rich  construction,  explained,  per- 
haps, by  the  lady's  Hungarian  nationality  —  always  that 
of  the  hussar.  A  few  bronzes  and  statuettes  of  exquisite 
selection,  chairs  rolling  softly  on  Persian  carpets,  and 
a  perfect  anarchy  of  stuffs  of  all  kinds  completed  the 
arrangement  of  this  salon,  which  the  lawyer  had  once 
before  visited  with  Brigitte  and  Thuillier  before  the 
countess  moved  into  it.  It  was  so  transformed  that  it 
seemed  to  him  unrecognizable.  With  a  little  more 
knowledge  of  the  world  la  Peyrade  would  have  been  less 
surprised  at  the  marvellous  care  given  by  the  countess 
to  the  decoration  of  the  room.  A  woman's  salon  is  her 
kingdom,  and  her  absolute  domain ;  there,  in  the  fullest 
sense  of  the  word,  she  reigns,  she  governs;  there  she 
offers  battle,  and  nearly  always  comes  off  victorious. 

Coquettishly  lying  back  in  a  corner  of  the  sofa,  her 
head  carelessly  supported  by  an  arm  the  form  and  white- 
ness of  which  could  be  seen  nearly  to  the  elbow  through 
the  wide,  open  sleeve  of  a  black  velvet  dressing-gown, 
her  Cinderella  foot  in  its  dainty  slipper  of  Russia  leather 
resting  on  a  cushion  of  orange  satin,  the  handsome  Hun- 
garian had  the  look  of  a  portrait  by  Laurence  or  Winter- 
halter,  plus  the  naivete  of  the  pose. 

"Monsieur,"  she  said,  with  the  slightly  foreign  accent 
which  lent  an  added  charm  to  her  words,  "I  cannot  help 
thinking  it  rather  droll  that  a  man  of  your  mind  and  rare 
penetration  should  have  thought  you  had  an  enemy  in 
me." 

"But,  Madame  la  comtesse,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  allow- 
ing her  to  read  in  his  eyes  an  astonishment  mingled  with 
distrust,  "all  the  appearances,  you  must  admit,  were  of 
that  nature.  A  suitor  interposes  to  break  off  a  marriage 
which  has  been  offered  to  me  with  every  inducement; 
this  rival  does   me  the  service  of  showing  himself  so 


324  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

miraculously  stupid  and  awkward  that  I  could  easily 
have  set  him  aside,  when  suddenly  a  most  unlooked-for 
and  able  auxiliary  devotes  herself  to  protecting  him  on 
the  very  ground  where  he  shows  himself  most  vulnerable. " 

"You  must  admit,"  said  the  countess,  laughing,  "that 
the  protege  proved  himself  a  most  intelligent  man,  and 
that  he  seconded  my  efforts  valiantly." 

"His  clumsiness  could  not  have  been,  I  think,  very 
unexpected  to  you,"  replied  la  Peyrade;  "therefore  the 
protection  you  have  deigned  to  give  him  is  the  more 
cruel  to  me." 

"What  a  misfortune  it  would  be,"  said  the  countess, 
with  charmingly  affected  satire,  "if  your  marriage  with 
Mademoiselle  Celeste  were  prevented!  Do  you  really 
care  so  much,  monsieur,  for  that  little  school-girl?  " 

In  that  last  word,  especially  the  intonation  with  which 
it  was  uttered,  there  was  more  than  contempt,  there  was 
hatred.  This  expression  did  not  escape  an  observer  of 
la  Peyrade' s  strength,  but  not  being  a  man  to  advance 
very  far  on  a  single  remark  he  merely  replied :  — 

"Madame,  the  vulgar  expression,  to  '  settle  down,' 
explains  this  situation,  in  which  a  man,  after  many 
struggles  and  being  at  an  end  of  his  efforts  and  his  illu- 
sions, makes  a  compromise  with  the  future.  When  this 
compromise  takes  the  form  of  a  young  girl  with,  I  admit, 
more  virtue  than  beauty,  but  one  who  brings  to  a  hus- 
band the  fortune  which  is  indispensable  to  the  comfort 
of  married  life,  what  is  there  so  astonishing  in  the  fact 
that  his  heart  yields  to  gratitude  and  that  he  welcomes 
the  prospect  of  a  placid  happiness?  " 

"I  have  always  thought,"  replied  the  countess,  "that 
the  power  of  a  man's  intellect  ought  to  be  the  measure 
of  his  ambition;  and  I  imagined  that  one  so  wise  as  to 
make  himself,  at  first,  the  poor  man's  lawyer,  would  have 
in  his  heart  less  humble  and  less  pastoral  aspirations." 

"Ah!  madame,"  returned  la  Peyrade,  "the  iron  hand 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  325 

of  necessity  compels  us  to  strange  resignations.  The 
question  of  daily  bread  is  one  of  those  before  which  all 
things  bend  the  knee.  Apollo  was  forced  to  4  get  a 
living,'  as  the  shepherd  of  Admetus." 

"The  sheepfold  of  Admetus,"  said  Madame  de  Godollo, 
"was  at  least  a  royal  fold;  I  don't  think  Apollo  would 
have  resigned  himself  to  be  the  shepherd  of  a — bourgeois." 

The  hesitation  that  preceded  the  last  word  seemed  to 
convey  in  place  of  it  a  proper  name;  and  la  Peyrade 
understood  that  Madame  de  Godollo,  out  of  pure  clem- 
ency, had  suppressed  that  of  Thuillier  and  turned  her 
remark  upon  the  species  and  not  the  individual. 

"I  agree,  madame,  that  your  distinction  is  a  just  one," 
he  replied,  "but  in  this  case  Apollo  has  no  choice." 

"I  don't  like  persons  who  charge  too  much,"  said  the 
countess,  "but  still  less  do  I  like  those  who  sell  their 
merchandise  below  the  market  price;  I  always  suspect 
such  persons  of  trying  to  dupe  me  by  some  clever  and 
complicated  trick.  You  know  very  well,  monsieur,  your 
own  value,  and  your  hypocritical  humility  displeases  me 
immensely.  It  proves  to  me  that  my  kindly  overtures 
have,  not  produced  even  a  beginning  of  confidence 
between  us." 

"I  assure  you,  madame,  that  up  to  the  present  time  life 
has  never  justified  the  belief  in  any  dazzling  superiority 
in  me." 

"Well,  really,"  said  the  Hungarian,  "perhaps  I  ought 
to  believe  in  the  humility  of  a  man  who  is  willing  to 
accept  the  pitiable  finale  of  his  life  which  I  threw  myself 
into  the  breach  to  prevent." 

"Just  as  I,  perhaps,"  said  la  Peyrade,  with  a  touch  of 
sarcasm,  "ought  to  believe  in  the  reality  of  a  kindness 
which,  in  order  to  save  me,  has  handled  me  so  roughly." 

The  countess  cast  a  reproachful  look  upon  her  visitor ; 
her  fingers  crumpled  the  ribbons  of  her  gown;  she 
lowered  her  eyes,  and  gave  a  sigh,  so  nearly  impercep- 


32G  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

tible,  so  slight,  that  it  might  have  passed  for  an  accident 
in  the  most  regular  breathing. 

"You  are  rancorous,"  she  said,  "and  you  judge  people 
by  one  aspect  only.  After  all,"  she  added,  as  if  on 
reflection,  "you  are  perhaps  right  in  reminding  me  that 
I  have  taken  the  longest  way  round  by  meddling,  rather 
ridiculously,  in  interests  that  do  not  concern  me.  Go 
on,  my  dear  monsieur,  in  the  path  of  this  glorious  mar- 
riage which  offers  you  so  many  combined  inducements; 
only,  let  me  hope  that  you  may  not  repent  a  course  with 
which  I  shall  no  longer  interfere." 

The  Provencal  had  not  been  spoilt  by  an  experience 
of  bonnes  fortunes.  The  poverty  against  which  he  had 
struggled  so  long  never  leads  to  affairs  of  gallantry,  and 
since  he  had  thrown  off  its  harsh  restraint,  his  mind 
being  wholly  given  to  the  anxious  work  of  creating  his 
future,  the  things  of  the  heart  had  entered  but  slightly 
into  his  life ;  unless  we  must  except  the  comedy  he  had 
played  on  Flavie.  We  can  therefore  imagine  the  per- 
plexity of  this  novice  in  the  matter  of  adventures  when  he 
saw  himself  placed  between  the  danger  of  losing  what 
seemed  to  be  a  delightful  opportunity,  and  the  fear  of 
finding  a  serpent  amid  the  beautiful  flowers  that  were 
offered  to  his  grasp.  Too  marked  a  reserve,  too  luke- 
warm an  eagerness,  might  wound  the  self-love  of  that 
beautiful  foreigner,  and  quench  the  spring  from  which 
he  seemed  invited  to  draw.  On  the  other  hand,  suppose 
that  appearance  of  interest  were  only  a  snare?  Suppose 
this  kindness  (ill-explained,  as  it  seemed  to  him),  of 
which  he  was  so  suddenly  the  object,  had  no  other  pur- 
pose than  to  entice  him  to  a  step  which  might  be  used  to 
compromise  him  with  the  Thuilliers  ?  What  a  blow  to  his 
reputation  for  shrewdness,  and  what  a  role  to  play !  —  that 
of  the  dog  letting  go  the  meat  for  the  shadow ! 

We  know  that  la  Peyrade  was  trained  in  the  school  of 
Tartuffe,  and  the  frankness  with  which  that  great  master 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  327 

declares  to  Elmire  that  without  receiving  a  few  of  the 
favors  to  which  he  aspired  he  could  not  trust  in  her 
tender  advances,  seemed  to  the  barrister  a  suitable 
method  to  apply  to  the  present  case,  adding,  however, 
a  trifle  more  softness  to  the  form. 

"Madame  la  comtesse,"  he  said,  "you  have  turned  me 
into  a  man  who  is  much  to  be  pitied.  I  was  cheerfully 
advancing  to  this  marriage,  and  you  take  all  faith  in  it 
away  from  me.  Suppose  I  break  it  off,  what  use  can 
I  —  with  that  great  capacity  you  see  in  me  —  make  of  the 
liberty  I  thus  recover?  " 

"La  Bruyere,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  said  that  nothing 
freshens  the  blood  so  much  as  to  avoid  committing  a 
folly." 

"That  may  be;  but  it  is,  you  must  admit,  a  negative 
benefit;  and  I  am  of  an  age  and  in  a  position  to  desire 
more  serious  results.  The  interest  that  you  deign  to 
show  to  me  cannot,  I  think,  stop  short  at  the  idea  of 
merely  putting  an  end  to  my  present  prospects.  I  love 
Mademoiselle  Colleville  with  a  love,  it  is  true,  which  has 
nothing  imperative  about  it;  but  I  certainly  love  her,  her 
hand  is  promised  to  me,  and  before  renouncing  it  —  " 

"So,"  said  the  countess,  hastily,  "in  a  given  case  you 
would  not  be  averse  to  a  rupture?  And,"  she  added,  in 
a  more  decided  tone,  "there  would  be  some  chance  of 
making  you  see  that  in  taking  your  first  opportunity  you 
cut  yourself  off  from  a  better  future,  in  which  a  more 
suitable  marriage  may  present  itself  ?  " 

"But,  at  least,  madame,  I  must  be  enabled  to  foresee 
it  definitely." 

This  persistence  in  demanding  pledges  seemed  to 
irritate  the  countess. 

"Faith,"  she  said,  "is  only  a  virtue  when  it  believes 
without  seeing.  You  doubt  yourself,  and  that  is  another 
form  of  stupidity.  I  am  not  happy,  it  seems,  in  my 
selection  of  those  I  desire  to  benefit." 


328  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

4 'But,  madame,  it  cannot  be  indiscreet  to  ask  to  know, 
in  some  remote  way  at  least,  what  future  your  kind 
good-will  has  imagined  for  me." 

"It  is  very  indiscreet,"  replied  the  countess,  coldly, 
"and  it  shows  plainly  that  you  offer  me  only  a  condi- 
tional confidence.  Let  us  say  no  more.  You  are  cer- 
tainly far  advanced  with  Mademoiselle  Colleville;  she 
suits  you,  you  say,  in  many  ways;  therefore  marry  her. 
I  say  again,  you  will  no  longer  find  me  in  your  way." 

"But  does  Mademoiselle  Colleville  really  suit  me?" 
resumed  la  Peyrade;  "that  is  the  very  point  on  which 
you  have  lately  raised  my  doubts.  Do  you  not  think 
there  is  something  cruel  in  casting  me  first  in  one  direc- 
tion and  then  in  the  other  without  affording  me  any 
ground  to  go  upon?" 

"Ah!"  said  the  countess,  in  a  tone  of  impatience, 
"you  want  my  opinion  on  the  premises!  Well,  mon- 
sieur, there  is  one  very  conclusive  fact  to  which  I  can 
bring  proof:  Celeste  does  not  love  you." 

"So  I  have  thought,"  said  la  Peyrade,  humbly.  "I 
felt  that  I  was  making  a  marriage  of  mere  convenience." 

"And  she  cannot  love  you,  because,"  continued  Madame 
de  Godollo,  with  animation,  "she  cannot  comprehend 
you.  Her  proper  husband  is  that  blond  little  man, 
insipid  as  herself;  from  the  union  of  those  two  natures 
without  life  or  heat  will  result  that  lukewarm  existence 
which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  world  where  she  was  born 
and  where  she  has  lived,  is  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  conjugal 
felicity.  Try  to  make  that  little  simpleton  understand 
that  when  she  had  a  chance  to  unite  herself  with  true 
talent  she  ought  to  have  felt  highly  honored !  But,  above 
all,  try  to  make  her  miserable,  odious  family  and  sur- 
roundings understand  it!  Enriched  bourgeois,  parvenus ! 
there  's  the  roof  beneath  which  you  think  to  rest  from 
your  cruel  labor  and  your  many  trials!  And  do  you 
believe  that  you  will  not  be  made  to  feel,  twenty  times 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  329 

a  day,  that  your  share  in  the  partnership  is  distressingly 
light  in  the  scale  against  their  money?  On  one  side,  the 
Iliad,  the  Cid,  Der  Freyschiitz,  and  the  frescos  of  the 
Vatican ;  on  the  other,  three  hundred  thousand  francs  in 
good,  ringing  coin!  Tell  me  which  side  they  will  trust 
and  admire!  The  artist,  the  man  of  imagination  who 
falls  into  the  bourgeois  atmosphere  —  shall  I  tell  you  to 
what  I  compare  him?  To  Daniel  cast  into  the  lion's 
den,  less  the  miracle  of  Holy  Writ." 

This  invective  against  the  bourgeoisie  was  uttered  in 
a  tone  of  heated  conviction  which  could  scarcely  fail  to 
be  communicated. 

"Ah!  madame,"  cried  la  Peyrade,  "how  eloquently 
you  say  things  which  again  and  again  have  entered  my 
troubled  and  anxious  mind!  But  I  have  felt  myself 
lashed  to  that  most  cruel  fate,  the  necessity  of  gaining 
a  position  —  " 

"Necessity!  position!  "  interrupted  the  countess,  again 
raising  the  temperature  of  her  speech,  —  "words  void 
of  meaning!  which  have  not  even  sound  to  able  men, 
though  they  drive  back  fools  as  though  they  were  for- 
midable barriers.  Necessity !  does  that  exist  for  noble 
natures,  for  those  who  know  how  to  will?  A  Gascon 
minister  uttered  a  saying  which  ought  to  be  engraved 
on  the  doors  of  all  careers:  4  All  things  come  to  him  who 
knows  how  to  wait. '  Are  you  ignorant  that  marriage,  to 
men  of  a  high  stamp,  is  either  a  chain  which  binds  them 
to  the  lowest  vulgarities  of  existence,  or  a  wing  on  which 
to  rise  to  the  highest  summits  of  the  social  world? 
The  wife  you  need,  monsieur, —  and  she  would  not  be 
long  wanting  to  your  career  if  you  had  not,  with  such 
incredible  haste,  accepted  the  first  dot  that  was  offered 
you, —  the  wife  you  should  have  chosen  is  a  woman 
capable  of  understanding  you,  able  to  divine  your  intel- 
lect; one  who  could  be  to  you  a  fellow- worker,  an  intel- 
lectual  confidant,  and   not  a  mere  embodiment  of  the 


330  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

pot-au-feu;  a  woman  capable  of  being  now  your  secre- 
tary, but  soon  the  wife  of  a  deputy,  a  minister,  an  am- 
bassador; one,  in  short,  who  could  offer  you  her  heart 
as  a  mainspring,  her  salon  for  a  stage,  her  connections 
for  a  ladder,  and  who,  in  return  for  all  she  would  give 
you  of  ardor  and  strength,  asks  only  to  shine  beside  your 
throne  in  the  rays  of  the  glory  she  predicts  for  you! " 

Intoxicated,  as  it  were,  with  the  flow  of  her  own  words, 
the  countess  was  really  magnificent;  her  eyes  sparkled, 
her  nostrils  dilated;  the  prospect  her  vivid  eloquence 
thus  unrolled  she  seemed  to  see,  and  touch  with  her 
quivering  fingers.  For  a  moment,  la  Peyrade  was 
dazzled  by  this  sunrise  which  suddenly  burst  upon  his 
life. 

However,  as  he  was  a  man  most  eminently  prudent, 
who  had  made  it  his  rule  of  life  never  to  lend  except 
on  sound  and  solvent  security,  he  was  still  impelled  to 
weigh  the  situation. 

"Madame  la  comtesse,"  he  said,  "you  reproached  me 
just  now  for  speaking  like  a  bourgeois,  and  I,  in  return, 
am  afraid  that  you  are  talking  like  a  goddess.  I  admire 
you,  I  listen  to  you,  but  I  am  not  convinced.  Such 
devotions,  such  sublime  abnegations  may  be  met  with 
in  heaven,  but  in  this  low  world  who  can  hope  to  be  the 
object  of  them  ?  "  * 

"You  are  mistaken,  monsieur,"  replied  the  countess, 
with  solemnity;  "such  devotions  are  rare,  but  they  are 
neither  impossible  nor  incredible;  only,  it  is  necessaiy 
to  have  the  heart  to  find  them,  and,  above  all,  the  hand 
to  take  them  when  they  are  offered  to  you." 

So  saying,  the  countess  rose  majestically. 

La  Peyrade  saw  that  he  had  ended  by  displeasing  her, 
and  he  felt  that  she  dismissed  him.  He  rose  himself, 
bowed  respectfully,  and  asked  to  be  received  again. 

"Monsieur,"  said  Madame  de  Godollo,  "we  Hun- 
garians, primitive  people  and  almost  savages  that  we 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  331 

are,  have  a  saying  that  when  our  door  is  open  both  sides 
of  it  are  opened  wide;  when  we  close  it  it  is  double- 
locked  and  bolted." 

That  dignified  and  ambiguous  speech  was  accompanied 
by  a  slight  inclination  of  the  head.  Bewildered,  con- 
founded by  this  behavior,  to  him  so  new,  which  bore 
but  little  resemblance  to  that  of  Flavie,  Brigitte,  and 
Madame  Minard,  la  Peyrade  left  the  house,  asking  him- 
self again  and  again  whether  he  had  played  his  game 
properly. 


332  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


V. 


SHOWING    HOW   NEAR   THE   TARPEIAN   ROCK   IS   TO   THE 
CAPITOL. 

On  leaving  Madame  de  Godollo,  la  Peyrade  felt  the 
necessity  of  gathering  himself  together.  Beneath  the 
conversation  he  had  just  maintained  with  this  strange 
woman,  what  could  he  see, —  a  trap,  or  a  rich  and  dis- 
tinguished marriage  offered  to  him?  Under  such  a  doubt 
as  this,  to  press  Celeste  for  an  immediate  answer  was 
neither  clever  nor  prudent;  it  was  simply  to  bind  him- 
self, and  close  the  door  to  the  chances,  still  very  ill- 
defined,  which  seemed  offered  to  him.  The  result  of  the 
consultation  which  The'odose  held  with  himself  as  he 
walked  along  the  boulevard  was  that  he  ought,  for  the 
moment,  to  think  only  of  gaining  time.  Consequently, 
instead  of  going  to  the  Thuilliers '  to  learn  Celeste's 
decision,  he  went  home,  and  wrote  the  following  little 
note  to  Thuillier :  — 

My  dear  Thuillier,  —  You  will  certainly  not  think  it  ex- 
traordinary that  I  should  not  present  myself  at  your  house 
to-day,  —  partly  because  I  fear  the  sentence  which  will  be  pro- 
nounced upon  me,  and  partly  because  I  do  not  wish  to  seem  an 
impatient  and  unmannerly  creditor.  A  few  days,  more  or  less, 
will  matter  little  under  such  circumstances,  and  yet  Made- 
moiselle Colleville  may  find  them  desirable  for  the  absolute 
freedom  of  her  choice.  I  shall,  therefore,  not  go  to  see  you  un- 
til you  write  for  me. 

I  am  now  more  calm,  and  I  have  added  a  few  more  pages  to 
our  manuscript;  it  will  take  but  little  time  to  hand  in  the 
whole  to  the  printer. 

Ever  yours, 

The'odose  de  la  Peyrade. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  333 

Two  hours  later  a  servant,  dressed  in  what  was  evi- 
dently the  first  step  towards  a  livery,  which  the  Thuilliers 
did  not  as  yet  venture  to  risk,  the  "male  domestic," 
whom  Minard  had  mentioned  to  the  Phellions,  arrived  at 
la  Peyrade's  lodgings  with  the  following  note:  — 

Come  to-night,  without  fail.  We  will  talk  over  the  whole 
affair  with  Brigitte. 

Your  most  affectionately  devoted 

JEROME    THUILLIER. 

"Good!"  said  la  Peyrade;  "evidently  there  is  some 
hindrance  on  the  other  side;  I  shall  have  time  to  turn 
myself  round." 

That  evening,  when  the  servant  announced  him  in  the 
Thuillier  salon,  the  Comtesse  de  Godollo,  who  was  sit- 
ting with  Brigitte,  hastened  to  rise  and  leave  the  room. 
As  she  passed  la  Peyrade  she  made  him  a  very  cere- 
monious bow.  There  was  nothing  conclusive  to  be 
deduced  from  this  abrupt  departure,  which  might  signify 
anything,  either  much  or  nothing. 

After  talking  of  the  weather  and  so  forth  for  a  time, 
as  persons  do  who  have  met  to  discuss  a  delicate  subject 
about  which  they  are  not  sure  of  coming  to  an  under- 
standing, the  matter  was  opened  by  Brigitte,  who  had 
sent  her  brother  to  take  a  walk  on  the  boulevard,  telling 
him  to  leave  her  to  manage  the  affair. 

"My  dear  boy,"  she  said  to  Theodose,  "it  was  very 
nice  of  you  not  to  come  here  to-day  like  a  grasp-all,  to 
put  your  pistol  at  our  throats,  for  we  were  not,  as  it  hap- 
pened, quite  ready  to  answer  you.  I  think,"  she  added, 
"that  our  little  Celeste  needs  a  trifle  more  time." 

"Then,"  said  la  Peyrade,  quickly,  "she  has  not  decided 
in  favor  of  Monsieur  Felix  Phellion  ?  " 

"Joker!  "  replied  the  old  maid,  "you  know  very  well 
you  settled  that  business  last  night;  but  you  also  know, 
of  course,  that  her  own  inclinations  incline  her  that 
wav." 


334  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

" Short  of  being  blind,  I  must  have  seen  that,"  replied 
la  Peyrade. 

"It  is  not  an  obstacle  to  my  projects,"  continued 
Mademoiselle  Thuillier;  "but  it  serves  to  explain  why 
I  ask  for  Celeste  a  little  more  time;  and  also  why  I 
have  wished  all  along  to  postpone  the  marriage  to  a  later 
date.  I  wanted  to  give  you  time  to  insinuate  yourself 
into  the  heart  of  my  dear  little  girl  —  but  you  and 
Thuillier  upset  my  plans." 

"Nothing,  I  think,  has  been  done  without  your  sanc- 
tion," said  la  Peyrade,  "and  if,  during  these  fifteen 
<iays,  I  have  not  talked  with  you  on  the  subject,  it  was 
out  of  pure  delicacy.  Thuillier  told  me  that  everything 
was  agreed  upon  with  you." 

"On  the  contrary,  Thuillier  knows  very  well  that  I 
refused  to  mix  myself  up  in  your  new  arrangements.  If 
you  had  not  made  yourself  so  scarce  lately,  I  might  have 
been  the  first  to  tell  you  I  did  not  approve  of  them. 
However,  I  can  truly  say  I  did  nothing  to  hinder  their 
success." 

"But  that  was  too  little,"  said  la  Peyrade;  "your 
active  help  was  absolutely  necessary." 

"Possibly;  but  I,  who  know  women  better  than  you, 
being  one  of  them,  —  I  felt  very  sure  that  if  Celeste  was 
told  to  choose  between  two  suitors  she  would  consider 
that  a  permission  to  think  at  her  ease  of  the  one  she 
liked  best.  I  myself  had  always  left  her  in  the  vague 
as  to  Felix,  knowing  as  I  did  the  proper  moment  to 
settle  her  mind  about  him." 

"So,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "you  mean  that  she  refuses 
me." 

"It  is  much  worse  than  that,"  returned  Brigitte;  "she 
accepts  you,  and  is  willing  to  pledge  her  word;  but  it  is 
so  easy  to  see  she  regards  herself  as  a  victim,  that  if  I 
were  in  your  place  I  should  feel  neither  flattered  nor 
secure  in  such  a  position." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  335 

In  any  other  condition  of  mind  la  Peyrade  would 
probably  have  answered  that  he  accepted  the  sacrifice, 
and  would  make  it  his  business  to  win  the  heart  which 
at  first  was  reluctantly  given ;  but  delay  now  suited  him, 
and  he  replied  to  Brigitte  with  a  question :  — 

"Then  what  do  you  advise?  What  course  had  I  better 
take?" 

"Finish  Thuillier's  pamphlet,  in  the  first  place,  or 
he  '11  go  crazy;  and  leave  me  to  work  the  other  affair  in 
your  interests,"  replied  Brigitte. 

"But  am  I  in  friendly  hands  ?  For,  to  tell  you  the  truth, 
little  aunt,  I  have  not  been  able  to  conceal  from  myself 
that  you  have,  for  some  time  past,  changed  very  much 
to  me." 

"Changed  to  you!  What  change  do  you  see  in  me, 
addled-pate  that  you  are  ?  * 

"Oh!  nothing  very  tangible,"  said  la  Peyrade;  "but 
ever  since  that  Comtesse  Torna  has  had  a  footing  in 
your  house  —  " 

"My  poor  boy,  the  countess  has  done  me  many  ser- 
vices, and  I  am  very  grateful  to  her;  but  is  that  any 
reason  why  I  should  be  false  to  you,  who  have  done  us 
still  greater  services  ?  " 

"But  you  must  admit,"  said  la  Peyrade,  craftily,  "that 
she  has  told  you  a  great  deal  of  harm  of  me." 

"Naturally  she  has;  these  fine  ladies  are  all  that  way; 
they  expect  the  whole  world  to  adore  them,  and  she  sees 
that  you  are  thinking  only  of  Celeste;  but  all  she  has 
said  to  me  against  you  runs  off  my  mind  like  water  from 
varnished  cloth." 

"So,  then,  little  aunt,  I  may  continue  to  count  on 
you?"  persisted  la  Peyrade. 

"Yes;  provided  you  are  not  tormenting,  and  will  let 
me  manage  this  affair." 

"Tell  me  how  you  are  going  to  do  it?"  asked  la 
Peyrade,  with  an  air  of  great  good-humor. 


336  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"In  the  first  place,  I  shall  signify  to  Felix  that  he  is 
not  to  set  foot  in  this  house  again." 

44 Is  that  possible?"  said  the  barrister;  "I  mean  can 
it  be  done  civilly  ?  " 

" Very  possible;  I  shall  make  Phellion  himself  tell 
him.  He  's  a  man  who  is  always  astride  of  principles, 
and  he  '11  be  the  first  to  see  that  if  his  son  will  not  do 
what  is  necessary  to  obtain  Celeste's  hand  he  ought  to 
deprive  us  of  his  presence." 

"What  next?  "  asked  la  Peyrade. 

"Next,  I  shall  signify  to  Celeste  that  she  was  left  at 
liberty  to  choose  one  husband  or  the  other,  and  as  she 
did  not  choose  Felix  she  must  make  up  her  mind  to  take 
you,  a  pious  fellow,  such  as  she  wants.  You  needn't  be 
uneasy;  I'll  sing  your  praises,  especially  your  generosity 
in  not  profiting  by  the  engagement  she  agreed  to  make 
to-day.  But  all  that  will  take  a  week  at  least,  and  if 
Thuillier's  pamphlet  is  n't  out  before  then,  I  don't  know 
but  what  we  shall  have  to  put  him  in  a  lunatic  asylum." 

"The  pamphlet  can  be  out  in  two  days.  But  is  it 
very  certain,  little  aunt,  that  we  are  playing  above- 
board?  Mountains,  as  they  say,  never  meet,  but  men 
do;  and  certainly,  when  the  time  comes  to  promote  the 
election,  I  can  do  Thuillier  either  good  or  bad  service. 
Do  you  know,  the  other  day  I  was  terribly  frightened. 
I  had  a  letter  from  him  in  my  pocket,  in  which  he  spoke 
of  the  pamphlet  as  being  written  by  me.  I  fancied  for  a 
moment  that  I  had  dropped  it  in  the  Luxembourg.  If  I 
had,  what  a  scandal  it  would  have  caused  in  the  quarter." 

"  Who  would  dare  to  play  tricks  with  such  a  wily  one 
as  you?"  said  Brigitte,  fully  comprehending  the  com- 
minatory  nature  of  la  Peyrade's  last  words,  interpolated 
into  the  conversation  without  rhyme  or  reason.  "But 
really,"  she  added,  "why  should  you  complain  of  us?  It 
is  you  who  are  behindhand  in  your  promises.  That  cross 
which  was  to  have  been  granted  within  a  week,  and  that 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  337 

pamphlet,  which  ought  to  have  appeared  a  long  time 
ago-" 

"The  pamphlet  and  the  cross  will  both  appear  in  good 
time;  the  one  will  bring  the  other,"  said  la  Peyrade, 
rising.  "Tell  Thuillier  to  come  and  see  me  to-morrow 
evening,  and  I  think  we  can  then  correct  the  last  sheet. 
But,  above  all,  don't  listen  to  the  spitefulness  of  Madame 
de  Grodollo;  I  have  an  idea  that  in  order  to  make  herself 
completely  mistress  of  this  house  she  wants  to  alienate 
all  your  old  friends,  and  also  that  she  is  casting  her  net 
for  Thuillier." 

"Well,  in  point  of  fact,"  said  the  old  maid,  whom  the 
parting  shot  of  the  infernal  barrister  had  touched  on  the 
ever-sensitive  point  of  her  authority,  "I  must  look  into 
that  matter  you  speak  of  there ;  she  is  rather  coquettish, 
that  little  woman." 

La  Peyrade  gained  a  second  benefit  out  of  that  speech 
so  adroitly  flung  out;  he  saw  by  Brigitte's  answer  to  it 
that  the  countess  had  not  mentioned  to  her  the  visit  he 
had  paid  her  during  the  day.  This  reticence  might  have 
a  serious  meaning. 

Four  days  later,  the  printer,  the  stitcher,  the  paper 
glazier  having  fulfilled  their  offices,  Thuillier  had  the 
inexpressible  happiness  of  beginning  on  the  boulevards 
a  promenade,  which  he  continued  through  the  Passages, 
and  even  to  the  Palais-Royal,  pausing  before  all  the 
book-shops  where  he  saw,  shining  in  black  letters  on  a 
yellow  poster,  the  famous  title :  — 

Taxation  and  the  Sliding-Scale, 

by  J.  Thuillier, 

Member  of  the  Council- General  of  the  Seine. 

Having  reached  the  point  of  persuading  himself  that 
the  care  he  had  bestowed  upon  the  correction  of  proofs 
made  the  merit  of  the  work  his  own,  his  paternal  heart, 

22 


338  The  Lemer  Bourgeoisie. 

like  that  of  Maitre  Corbeau,  could  not  contain  itself  for 
joy.  We  ought  to  add  that  he  held  in  very  low  esteem 
those  booksellers  who  did  not  announce  the  sale  of  the 
new  work,  destined  to  become,  as  he  believed,  a  European 
event.  Without  actually  deciding  the  manner  in  which 
he  would  punish  their  indifference,  he  nevertheless  made 
a  list  of  these  rebellious  persons,  and  wished  them  as 
much  evil  as  if  they  had  offered  him  a  personal  affront. 

The  next  day  he  spent  a  delightful  moruing  in  writing 
a  certain  number  of  letters,  sending  the  publication  to 
friends,  and  putting  into  paper  covers  some  fifty  copies, 
to  which  the  sacramental  phrase,  "From  the  author," 
imparted  to  his  eyes  an  inestimable  value. 

But  the  third  day  of  the  sale  brought  a  slight  diminu- 
tion of  his  happiness.  He  had  chosen  for  his  editor  a 
young  man,  doing  business  at  a  breakneck  pace,  who 
had  lately  established  himself  in  the  Passage  des  Pano- 
ramas, where  he  was  paying  a  ruinous  rent.  He  was  the 
nephew  of  Barbet  the  publisher,  whom  Brigitte  had  had 
as  a  tenant  in  the  rue  Saint-Dominique  d'Enfer.  This 
Barbet  junior  was  a  youth  who  flinched  at  nothing;  and 
when  he  was  presented  to  Thuillier  by  his  uncle,  he 
pledged  himself,  provided  he  was  not  shackled  in  his 
advertising,  to  sell  off  the  first  edition  and  print  a  second 
within  a  week. 

Now,  Thuillier  had  spent  about  fifteen  hundred  francs 
himself  on  costs  of  publication,  such,  for  instance,  as 
copies  sent  in  great  profusion  to  the  newspapers;  but 
at  the  close  of  the  third  day  seven  copies  only  had  been 
sold,  and  three  of  those  on  credit.  It  might  be  believed 
that  in  revealing  to  the  horror-stricken  Thuillier  this 
paltry  result  the  young  publisher  would  have  lost  at 
least  something  of  his  assurance.  On  the  contrary,  this 
Guzman  of  the  book-trade  hastened  to  say:  — 

"I  am  delighted  at  what  has  happened.  If  we  had 
sold  a  hundred  copies  it  would  trouble  me  far  more  than 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  339 

the  fifteen  hundred  now  on  our  hands;  that 's  what  I  call 
hanging  fire;  whereas  this  insignificant  sale  only  proves 
that  the  edition  will  go  off  like  a  rocket." 

"But  when?  "  asked  Thuillier,  who  thought  this  view 
paradoxical. 

"Parbleu!  "  said  Barbet,  "when  we  get  the  notices  in 
the  newspapers.  Newspaper  notices  are  only  useful  to 
arouse  attention.  '  Dear  me! '  says  the  public,  '  there  's 
a  publication  that  must  be  interesting.'  The  title  is 
good, —  'Taxation  and  the  Sliding-Scale,' — but  I  find 
that  the  more  piquant  a  title  is,  the  more  buyers  distrust 
it,  they  have  been  taken  in  so  often ;  they  wait  for  the 
notices.  On  the  other  hand,  for  books  that  are  destined 
to  have  only  a  limited  sale,  a  hundred  ready-made  pur- 
chasers will  come  in  at  once,  but  after  that,  good-bye  to 
them;  we  don't  place  another  copy." 

"Then  you  don't  think,"  said  Thuillier,  "that  the  sale 
is  hopeless?" 

"On  the  contrary,  I  think  it  is  on  the  best  track. 
When  the  *  Debats,'  the  4  Constitutionnel, '  the  ?  Siecle,' 
and  the  '  Presse '  have  reviewed  it,  especially  if  the 
1  Debats'  mauls  it  (they  are  ministerial,  you  know),  it 
won't  be  a  week  before  the  whole  edition  is  snapped 
up." 

"You  say  that  easily  enough,"  replied  Thuillier;  "but 
how  are  we  to  get  hold  of  those  gentlemen  of  the  press  ?  " 

"Ah!  I  '11  take  care  of  that,"  said  Barbet.  "I  am  on 
the  best  of  terms  with  the  managing  editors;  they  say 
the  devil  is  in  me,  and  that  I  remind  them  of  Ladvocat 
in  his  best  days." 

"But  then,  my  dear  fellow,  you  ought  to  have  seen  to 
this  earlier." 

"Ah!  excuse  me,  papa  Thuillier;  there  's  only  one  way 
of  seeing  to  journalists;  but  as  you  grumbled  about  the 
fifteen  hundred  francs  for  the  advertisements,  I  did  not 
venture  to  propose  to  you  another  extra  expense." 


340  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"What  expense?"  asked  Thuillier,  anxiously. 

"When  you  were  nominated  to  the  municipal  council, 
where  was  the  plan  mooted?"  asked  the  publisher. 

"Parbleu/  in  my  own  house,"  replied  Thuillier. 

"Yes,  of  course,  in  your  own  house,  but  at  a  dinner, 
followed  by  a  ball,  and  the  ball  itself  crowned  by  a 
supper.  Well,  my  dear  master,  there  are  no  two  ways 
to  do  this  business;  Boileau  says:  — 

"  '  All  is  done  through  the  palate,  and  not  through  the  mind  ; 
And  it  is  by  our  dinners  we  govern  mankind.'  " 

"Then  you  think  I  ought  to  give  a  dinner  to  those 
journalists?" 

"Yes;  but  not  at  your  own  house;  for  these  jour- 
nalists, you  see,  if  women  are  present,  get  stupid;  they 
have  to  behave  themselves.  And,  besides,  it  is  n't  din- 
ner they  want,  but  a  breakfast  —  that  suits  them  best. 
In  the  evening  these  gentlemen  have  to  go  to  first  repre- 
sentations, and  make  up  their  papers,  not  to  speak  of 
their  own  little  private  doings ;  whereas  in  the  mornings 
they  have  nothing  to  think  about.  As  for  me,  it  is 
always  breakfasts  that  I  give." 

"But  that  costs  money,  breakfasts  like  that,"  said 
Thuillier;  "journalists  are  gourmands.*' 

"Bah!  twenty  francs  a  head,  without  wine.  Say  you 
have  ten  of  them;  three  hundred  francs  will  see  you 
handsomely  through  the  whole  thing.  In  fact,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  economy,  breakfasts  are  preferable ;  for  a  dinner 
you  would  n't  get  off  under  five  hundred  francs." 

"How  you  talk,  young  man!  "  said  Thuillier. 

"Oh,  hang  it!  everybody  knows  it  costs  dear  to  get 
elected  to  the  Chamber;  and  all  this  favors  your 
nomination." 

"But  how  can  I  invite  those  gentlemen?  Must  I  go 
and  see  them  myself?" 

"Certainly  not;  send  them  your  pamphlet  and  appoint 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  341 

them  to  meet  you  at  Philippe's  or  Vefour's  —  they  '11 
understand  perfectly." 

"Ten  guests,"  said  Thuillier,  beginning  to  enter  into 
the  idea.  "I  did  not  know  there  were  so  many  leading 
journals." 

"There  are  not,"  said  the  publisher;  "but  we  must 
have  the  little  dogs  as  well,  for  they  bark  loudest.  This 
breakfast  is  certain  to  make  a  noise,  and  if  you  don't 
ask  them  they  '11  think  you  pick  and  choose,  and  every- 
one excluded  will  be  your  enemy/' 

"Then  you  think  it  is  enough  merely  to  send  the 
invitations?  " 

"Yes;  I'll  make  the  list,  and  you  can  write  the  notes 
and  send  them  to  me.  I'll  see  that  they  are  delivered; 
some  of  them  I  shall  take  in  person." 

"If  I  were  sure,"  said  Thuillier,  undecidedly,  "that 
this  expense  would  have  the  desired  effect  —  " 

"If  I  were  sure,  —  that 's  a  queer  thing  to  say,"  said 
Barbet.  "My  dear  master,  this  is  money  placed  on 
mortgage;  for  it,  I  will  guarantee  the  sale  of  fifteen 
hundred  copies, —  say  at  forty  sous  apiece;  allowing  the 
discounts,  that  makes  three  thousand  francs.  You  see 
that  your  costs  and  extra  costs  are  covered,  and  more 
than  covered. 

"Well,"  said  Thuillier,  turning  to  go,  "I'll  talk  to 
la  Peyrade  about  it." 

"As  you  please,  my  dear  master;  but  decide  soon,  for 
nothing  gets  mouldy  so  fast  as  a  book;  write  hot,  serve 
hot,  and  buy  hot, —  that 's  the  rule  for  authors,  publishers, 
and  public;  all  is  bosh  outside  of  it,  and  no  good  to 
touch." 

When  la  Peyrade  was  consulted,  he  did  not  think  in 
his  heart  that  the  remedy  was  heroic,  but  he  had  now 
come  to  feel  the  bitterest  animosity  against  Thuillier,  so 
that  he  was  well  pleased  to  see  this  new  tax  levied  on 
his  self-important  inexperience  and  pompous  silliness. 


342  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

As  for  Thuillier,  the  mania  for  posing  as  a  publicist 
and  getting  himself  talked  about  so  possessed  him  that 
although  he  moaned  over  this  fresh  bleeding  of  his  purse, 
he  had  decided  on  the  sacrifice  before  he  even  spoke  to 
la  Peyrade.  The  reserved  and  conditional  approval  of 
the  latter  was,  therefore,  more  than  enough  to  settle  his 
determination,  and  the  same  evening  he  returned  to 
Barbet  junior  and  asked  for  the  list  of  guests  whom  he 
ought  to  invite. 

Barbet  gayly  produced  his  little  catalogue.  Instead 
of  the  ten  guests  originally  mentioned,  there  proved  to 
be  fifteen,  not  counting  himself  or  la  Peyrade,  whom 
Thuillier  wanted  to  second  him  in  this  encounter  with  a 
set  of  men  among  whom  he  himself  felt  he  should  be  a 
little  out  of  place.  Casting  his  eyes  over  the  list,  he 
exclaimed,  vehemently :  — 

"Heavens!  my  dear  fellow,  here  are  names  of  papers 
nobody  ever  heard  of.  What's  the  '  Moralisateur,'  the 
*  Lanterne  de  Diogene,'  the  '  Pelican,'  the  *  Echo  de  la 
Bievre'?" 

"You  'd  better  be  careful  how  you  scorn  the  4  feho  de 
la  Bievre,'"  said  Barbet;  "why,  that's  the  paper  of 
the  12th  arrondissement,  from  which  you  expect  to  be 
elected ;  its  patrons  are  those  big  tanners  of  the  Mouffetard 
quarter!  " 

"Well,  let  that  go  —  but  the  '  PClican  ' ?  " 

"The  '  Pelican  '?  that 's  a  paper  you  '11  find  in  every 
dentist's  waiting-room;  dentists  are  the  first  puffists  in 
the  world !  How  many  teeth  do  you  suppose  are  daily 
pulled  in  Paris?" 

"Come,  come,  nonsense,"  said  Thuillier,  who  pro- 
ceeded to  mark  out  certain  names,  reducing  the  whole 
number  present  to  fourteen. 

4 "If  one  falls  off  we  shall  be  thirteen,"  remarked 
Barbet. 

"Pooh!"  said  Thuillier,  the  free-thinker,  "do  you 
suppose  I  give  in  to  that  superstition?" 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  343 

The  list  being  finally  closed  and  settled  at  fourteen, 
Thuillier  seated  himself  at  the  publisher's  desk  and  wrote 
the  invitations,  naming,  in  view  of  the  urgency  of  the 
purpose,  the  next  day  but  one  for  the  meeting,  Barbet 
having  assured  him  that  no  journalist  would  object  to 
the  shortness  of  the  invitation.  The  meeting  was  ap- 
pointed at  Vefour's,  the  restaurant  par  excellence  of  the 
bourgeoisie  and  all  provincials. 

Barbet  arrived  on  the  day  named  before  Thuillier,  who 
appeared  in  a  cravat  which  alone  was  enough  to  create  a 
stir  in  the  satirical  circle  in  which  he  was  about  to  pro- 
duce himself.  The  publisher,  on  his  own  authority,  had 
changed  various  articles  on  the  bill  of  fare  as  selected 
by  his  patron,  more  especially  directing  that  the  cham- 
pagne, ordered  in  true  bourgeois  fashion  to  be  served 
with  the  dessert,  should  be  placed  on  the  table  at  the 
beginning  of  breakfast,  with  several  dishes  of  shrimps, 
a  necessity  which  had  not  occurred  to  the  amphitryon. 

Thuillier,  who  gave  a  lip-approval  to  these  amend- 
ments, was  followed  by  la  Peyrade;  and  then  came  a 
long  delay  in  the  arrival  of  the  guests.  Breakfast  was 
ordered  at  eleven  o'clock  ;  at  a  quarter  to  twelve  not  a 
journalist  had  appeared.  Barbet,  who  was  never  at  a 
loss,  made  the  consoling  remark  that  breakfasts  at  res- 
taurants were  like  funerals,  where,  as  every  one  knew, 
eleven  o'clock  meant  mid-day. 

Sure  enough,  shortly  before  that  hour,  two  gentlemen, 
with  pointed  beards,  exhaling  a  strong  odor  of  tobacco, 
made  their  appearance.  Thuillier  thanked  them  effus- 
ively for  the  "honor"  they  had  done  him;  after  which 
came  another  long  period  of  waiting,  of  which  we  shall 
not  relate  the  tortures.  At  one  o'clock  the  assembled 
contingent  comprised  five  of  the  invited  guests,  Barbet 
and  la  Peyrade  not  included.  It  is  scarcely  necessary 
to  say  that  none  of  the  self-respecting  journalists  of 
the  better  papers  had  taken  any  notice  of  the  absurd 
invitation. 


344  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Breakfast  now  had  to  be  served  to  this  reduced  num- 
ber. A  few  polite  phrases  that  reached  Thuillier's  ears 
about  the  " immense"  interest  of  his  publication,  failed 
to  blind  him  to  the  bitterness  of  his  discomfiture;  and 
without  the  gayety  of  the  publisher,  who  had  taken  in 
hand  the  reins  his  patron,  gloomy  as  Hippolytus  on  the 
road  to  Mycenae,  let  fall,  nothing  could  have  surpassed 
the  glum  and  glacial  coldness  of  the  meeting. 

After  the  oysters  were  removed,  the  champagne  and 
chablis  which  had  washed  them  down  had  begun,  never- 
theless, to  raise  the  thermometer,  when,  rushing  into  the 
room  where  the  banquet  was  taking  place,  a  young  man 
in  a  cap  conveyed  to  Thuillier  a  most  unexpected  and 
crushing  blow. 

"Master,"  said  the  new-comer  to  Barbet  (he  was  a 
clerk  in  the  bookseller's  shop),  "we  are  done  for!  The 
police  have  made  a  raid  upon  us;  a  commissary  and  two 
men  have  come  to  seize  monsieur's  pamphlet.  Here  's  a 
paper  they  have  given  me  for  you." 

"Look  at  that,"  said  Barbet,  handing  the  document  to 
la  Peyrade,  his  customary  assurance  beginning  to  for- 
sake him. 

"A  summons  to  appear  at  once  before  the  court  of 
assizes,"  said  la  Peyrade,  after  reading  a  few  lines  of 
the  sheriff's  scrawl. 

Thuillier  had  turned  as  pale  as  death. 

"Did  n't  you  fulfil  all  the  necessary  formalities?  "  he 
said  to  Barbet,  in  a  choking  voice. 

"This  is  not  a  question  of  formalities,"  said  la  Peyrade, 
"it  is  a  seizure  for  what  is  called  press  misdemeanor, 
exciting  contempt  and  hatred  of  the  government;  you 
probably  have  the  same  sort  of  compliment  awaiting  you 
at  home,  my  poor  Thuillier." 

"Then  it  is  treachery!  "  cried  Thuillier,  losing  his 
head  completely. 

"Hang  it,  my  dear  fellow!  you  know  very  well  what 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  345 

you  put  in  your  pamphlet;  for  my  part,  I  didn't  see 
anything  worth  whipping  a  cat  for." 

"  There  's  some  misunderstanding,"  said  Barbet,  recov- 
ering courage;  "it  will  all  be  explained,  and  the  result 
will  be  a  fine  cause  of  complaint  —  won't  it,  messieurs?  " 

"Waiter,  pens  and  ink!"  cried  one  of  the  journalists 
thus  appealed  to. 

"Nonsense!  you'll  have  time  to  write  your  article 
later,"  said  another  of  the  brotherhood;  "what  has  a 
bombshell  to  do  with  this  filet  saute  ?  " 

That,  of  course,  was. a  parody  on  the  famous  speech 
of  Charles  XII.,  King  of  Sweden,  when  a  shot  interrupted 
him  while  dictating  to  a  secretary. 

"Messieurs,"  said  Thuillier,  rising,  "I  am  sure  you 
will  excuse  me  for  leaving  you.  If,  as  Monsieur  Barbet 
thinks,  there  is  some  misunderstanding,  it  ought  to  be 
explained  at  once;  I  must  therefore,  with  your  permis- 
sion, go  to  the  police  court.  La  Peyrade,"  he  added  in 
a  significant  tone,  "you  will  not  refuse,  I  presume,  to 
accompany  me.  And  you,  my  dear  publisher,  you  would 
do  well  to  come  too." 

"No,  faith!  "  said  Barbet,  "when  1  breakfast,  I  break- 
fast; if  the  police  have  committed  a  blunder,  so  much 
the  worse  for  them." 

"But  suppose  the  matter  is  serious?"  cried  Thuillier, 
in  great  agitation. 

"Well,  I  should  say,  what  is  perfectly  true,  that  I  had 
never  read  a  line  of  your  pamphlet.  One  thing  is  very 
annoying;  those  damned  juries  hate  beards,  and  I  must 
cut  off  mine  if  I  'm  compelled  to  appear  in  court." 

"Come,  my  dear  amphitryon,  sit  down  again,"  said 
the  editor  of  the  4  Echo  de  la  Bievre,'  "we  '11  stand  by 
you;  I've  already  written  an  article  in  my  head  which 
will  stir  up  all  the  tanners  in  Paris;  and,  let  me  tell  you, 
that  honorable  corporation  is  a  power." 

"No,   monsieur,"  replied  Thuillier,  "no;  a  man  like 


346  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

me  cannot  rest  an  hour  under  such  an  accusation  as  this. 
Continue  your  breakfast  without  us;  I  hope  soon  to  see 
you  again.     La  Peyrade,  are  you  coming?" 

"He's  charming,  isn't  he?"  said  Barbet,  when 
Thuillier  and  his  counsel  had  left  the  room.  "To  ask 
me  to  leave  a  breakfast  after  the  oysters,  and  go  and  talk 
with  the  police!  Come,  messieurs,  close  up  the  ranks," 
he  added,  gayly. 

"Tiensf"  said  one  of  the  hungry  journalists,  who  had 
cast  his  eyes  into  the  garden  of  the  Palais-Royal,  on 
which  the  dining-room  of  the  restaurant  opened,  "there  's 
Barbanchu  going  by;  suppose  I  call  him  in?" 

"Yes,  certainly,"  said  Barbet  junior,  "have  him  up." 

"Barbanchu!  Barbanchu  !"  called  out  the  journalist. 

Barbanchu,  his  hat  being  over  his  eyes,  was  some  time 
in  discovering  the  cloud  above  him  whence  the  voice 
proceeded. 

"Here,  up  here!"  called  the  voice,  which  seemed  to 
Barbanchu  celestial  when  he  saw  himself  hailed  by  a 
man  with  a  glass  of  champagne  in  his  hand.  Then,  as 
he  seemed  to  hesitate,  the  party  above  called  out  in 
chorus : — 

"Come  up!  come  up!     There  's  fat  to  be  had!  " 

When  Thuillier  left  the  office  of  the  public  prosecutor 
he  could  no  longer  have  any  illusions.  The  case  against 
him  was  serious,  and  the  stern  manner  in  which  he  had 
been  received  made  him  see  that  when  the  trial  came  he 
would  be  treated  without  mercy.  Then,  as  always  hap- 
pens among  accomplices  after  the  non-success  of  an 
affair  they  have  done  in  common,  he  turned  upon  la 
Peyrade  in  the  sharpest  manner:  La  Peyrade  had  paid 
no  attention  to  what  he  wrote;  he  had  given  full  swing 
to  his  stupid  Saint-Simonian  ideas;  he  did  n't  care  for 
the  consequences;  it  was  not  he  who  would  have  to  pay 
the  fine  and  go  to  prison!  Then,  when  la  Peyrade 
answered  that  the  matter  did  not  look  to  him  serious, 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  347 

and  he  expected  to  get  a  verdict  of  acquittal  without 
difficulty,  Thuillier  burst  forth  upon  him,  vehemently:  — 

"Parbleu!  the  thing  is  plain  enough;  monsieur  sees 
nothing  in  it?  Well,  I  shall  not  put  my  honor  and  my 
fortune  into  the  hands  of  a  little  upstart  like  yourself ; 
I  shall  take  some  great  lawyer  if  the  case  comes  to 
trial.  I  've  had  enough  of  your  collaboration  by  this 
time." 

Under  the  injustice  of  these  remarks  la  Peyrade  felt 
his  anger  rising.  However,  he  saw  himself  disarmed, 
and  not  wishing  to  come  to  an  open  rupture,  he  parted 
from  Thuillier,  saying  that  he  forgave  a  man  excited  by 
fear,  and  would  go  to  see  him  later  in  the  afternoon, 
when  he  would  probably  be  calmer ;  they  could  then  decide 
on  what  steps  they  had  better  take. 

Accordingly,  about  four  o'clock,  the  Provencal  arrived 
at  the  house  in  the  Place  de  la  Madeleine.  Thuillier' s 
irritation  was  quieted,  but  frightful  consternation  had 
taken  its  place.  If  the  executioner  were  coming  in  half 
an  hour  to  lead  him  to  the  scaffold  he  could  not  have 
been  more  utterly  unstrung  and  woe-begone.  When  la 
Peyrade  entered  Madame  Thuillier  was  trying  to  make 
him  take  an  infusion  of  linden-leaves.  The  poor  woman 
had  come  out  of  her  usual  apathy,  and  proved  herself, 
beside  the  present  Sabinus,  another  Eponina. 

As  for  Brigitte,  who  presently  appeared,  bearing  a 
foot-bath,  she  had  no  mercy  or  restraint  toward  Theo- 
dose;  her  sharp  and  bitter  reproaches,  which  were  out 
of  all  proportion  to  the  fault,  even  supposing  him  to 
have  committed  one.  would  have  driven  a  man  of  the 
most  placid  temperament  beside  himself.  La  Peyrade 
felt  that  all  was  lost  to  him  in  the  Thuillier  household, 
where  they  now  seemed  to  seize  with  joy  the  occasion  to 
break  their  word  to  him  and  to  give  free  rein  to  revolt- 
ing ingratitude.  On  an  ironical  allusion  by  Brigitte  to 
the  manner  in  which  he  decorated  his  friends,  la  Peyrade 


348  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

rose  and  took  leave,  without  any  effort  being  made  to 
retain  him. 

After  walking  about  the  streets  for  awhile,  la  Peyrade, 
in  the  midst  of  his  indignation,  turned  to  thoughts  of 
Madame  de  Godollo,  whose  image,  to  tell  the  truth,  had 
been  much  in  his  mind  since  their  former  interview. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie,  349 


VI. 

't  was  thus  they  bade  adieu. 

Not  only  once  when  the  countess  met  the  barrister  at 
the  Thuilliers  had  she  left  the  room ;  but  the  same  per- 
formance took  place  at  each  of  their  encounters;  and 
la  Peyrade  had  convinced  himself,  without  knowing 
exactly  why,  that  in  each  case,  this  affectation  of  avoid- 
ing him,  signified  something  that  was  not  indifference. 
To  have  paid  her  another  visit  immediately  would  cer- 
tainly have  been  very  unskilful;  but  now  a  sufficient 
time  had  elapsed  to  prove  him  to  be  a  man  who  was 
master  of  himself.  Accordingly,  he  returned  upon  his 
steps  to  the  Boulevard  de  la  Madeleine,  and  without  ask- 
ing the  porter  if  the  countess  was  at  home,  he  passed  the 
lodge  as  if  returning  to  the  Thuilliers',  and  rang  the  bell 
of  the  entresol. 

The  maid  who  opened  the  door  asked  him,  as  before, 
to  wait  until  she  notified  her  mistress;  but,  on  this 
occasion,  instead  of  showing  him  into  the  dining-room, 
she  ushered  him  into  a  little  room  arranged  as  a  library. 

He  waited  long,  and  knew  not  what  to  think  of  the 
delay.  Still,  he  reassured  himself  with  the  thought  that 
if  she  meant  to  dismiss  him  he  would  not  have  been 
asked  to  wait  at  all.  Finally  the  maid  reappeared,  but 
even  then  it  was  not  to  introduce  him. 

"Madame  la  comtesse,"  said  the  woman,  "was  engaged 
on  a  matter  of  business,  but  she  begged  monsieur  be  so 
kind  as  to  wait,  and  to  amuse  himself  with  the  books  in 
the  library,  because  she  might  be  detained  longer  than 
she  expected." 


350  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

The  excuse,  both  in  form  and  substance,  was  certainly 
not  discouraging,  and  la  Peyrade  looked  about  him  to 
fulfil  the  behest  to  amuse  himself.  Without  opening  any 
of  the  carved  rosewood  bookcases,  which  enclosed  a  col- 
lection of  the  most  elegantly  bound  volumes  he  had  ever 
laid  his  eyes  upon,  he  saw  on  an  oblong  table  with  claw 
feet  a  pell-mell  of  books  sufficient  for  the  amusement  of 
a  man  whose  attention  was  keenly  alive  elsewhere. 

But,  as  he  opened  one  after  another  of  the  various 
volumes,  he  began  to  fancy  that  a  feast  of  Tantalus  had 
been  provided  for  him :  one  book  was  English,  another 
German,  a  third  Russian ;  there  was  even  one  in  cabalis- 
tic letters  that  seemed  Turkish.  Was  this  a  polyglottic 
joke  the  countess  had  arranged  for  him  ? 

One  volume,  however,  claimed  particular  attention. 
The  binding,  unlike  those  of  the  other  books,  was  less 
rich  than  dainty.  Lying  by  itself  at  a  corner  of  the 
table,  it  was  open,  with  the  back  turned  up,  the  edges  of 
the  leaves  resting  on  the  green  table-cloth  in  the  shape 
of  a  tent.  La  Peyrade  took  it  up,  being  careful  not  to 
lose  the  page  which  it  seemed  to  have  been  some  one's 
intention  to  mark.  It  proved  to  be  a  volume  of  the 
illustrated  edition  of  Monsieur  Scribe's  works.  The 
engraving  which  presented  itself  on  the  open  page  to 
la  Peyrade's  eyes,  was  entitled  "The  Hatred  of  a 
Woman ;  "  the  principal  personage  of  which  is  a  young 
widow,  desperately  pursuing  a  poor  young  man  who  can- 
not help  himself.  There  is  hatred  all  round.  Through 
her  deviltries  she  almost  makes  him  lose  his  reputation, 
and  does  make  him  miss  a  rich  marriage;  but  the  end 
is  that  she  gives  him  more  than  she  took  away  from 
him,  and  makes  a  husband  of  the  man  who  was  thought 
her  victim. 

If  chance  had  put  this  volume  apart  from  the  rest,  and 
had  left  it  open  at  the  precise  page  where  la  Peyrade  found 
it  marked,  it  must  be  owned  that,  after  what  had  passed 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  351 

between  himself  and  the  countess,  chance  can  sometimes 
seem  clever  and  adroit.  As  he  stood  there,  thinking  over 
the  significance  which  this  more  or  less  accidental  com- 
bination might  have,  la  Peyrade  read  through  a  number 
of  scenes  to  see  whether  in  the  details  as  well  as  the  gen- 
eral whole  they  applied  to  the  present  situation.  While 
thus  employed,  the  sound  of  an  opening  door  was  heard, 
and  he  recognized  the  silvery  and  slightly  drawling  voice 
of  the  countess,  who  was  evidently  accompanying  some 
visitor  to  the  door. 

"Then  I  may  promise  the  ambassadress,"  said  a  man's 
voice,  "that  you  will  honor  her  ball  with  your  presence?  " 

"Yes,  commander,  if  my  headache,  which  is  just  be- 
ginning to  get  a  little  better,  is  kind  enough  to  go 
away." 

"Au  revoir,  then,  fairest  lady,"  said  the  gentleman. 
After  which  the  doors  were  closed,  and  silence  reigned 
once  more. 

The  title  of  commander  reassured  la  Peyrade  some- 
what, for  it  is  not  the  rank  of  a  young  dandy.  He  was 
nevertheless  curious  to  know  who  this  personage  was 
with  whom  the  countess  had  been  shut  up  so  long. 
Hearing  no  one  approach  the  room  he  was  in,  he  went 
to  the  window  and  opened  the  curtain  cautiously,  pre- 
pared to  let  it  drop  back  at  the  slightest  noise,  and  to 
make  a  quick  right-about-face  to  avoid  being  caught, 
flagrante  delicto,  in  curiosity.  An  elegant  coupe\  stand- 
ing at  a  little  distance,  was  now  driven  up  to  the  house, 
a  footman  in  showy  livery  hastened  to  open  the  door, 
and  a  little  old  man,  with  a  light  and  jaunty  movement, 
though  it  was  evident  he  was  one  of  those  relics  of  the 
past  who  have  not  yet  abandoned  powder,  stepped  quickly 
into  the  carriage,  which  was  then  driven  rapidly  away. 
La  Peyrade  had  time  to  observe  on  his  breast  a  perfect 
string  of  decorations.  This,  combined  with  the  pow- 
dered hair,  was  certain  evidence  of  a  diplomatic 
individual. 


352  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

La  Peyrade  had  picked  up  his  book  once  more,  when  a 
bell  from  the  inner  room  sounded,  quickly  followed  by 
the  appearance  of  the  maid,  who  invited  him  to  follow 
her.  The  Provencal  took  care  not  to  replace  the  volume 
where  he  found  it,  and  an  instant  later  he  entered  the 
presence  of  the  countess. 

A  pained  expression  was  visible  on  the  handsome  face 
of  the  foreign  countess,  who,  however,  lost  nothing  of 
her  charm  in  the  languor  that  seemed  to  overcome  her. 
On  the  sofa  beside  her  was  a  manuscript  written  on 
gilt-edged  paper,  in  that  large  and  opulent  handwriting 
which  indicates  an  official  communication  from  some 
ministerial  office  or  chancery.  She  held  in  her  hand  a 
crystal  bottle  with  a  gold  stopper,  from  which  she  fre- 
quently inhaled  the  contents,  and  a  strong  odor  of  Eng- 
lish vinegar  pervaded  the  salon. 

"I  fear  you  are  ill,  madame,"  said  la  Peyrade,  with 
interest. 

"Oh!  it  is  nothing,"  replied  the  countess;  "only  a 
headache,  to  which  I  am  very  subject.  But  you,  mon- 
sieur, what  has  become  of  you  ?  I  was  beginning  to  lose 
all  hope  of  ever  seeing  you  again.  Have  you  come  to 
announce  to  me  some  great  news  ?  The  period  of  your 
marriage  with  Mademoiselle  Colleville  is  probably  so 
near  that  I  think  you  can  speak  of  it." 

This  opening  disconcerted  la  Peyrade. 

"But,  madame,"  he  answered,  in  a  tone  that  was  almost 
tart,  "you,  it  seems  to  me,  must  know  too  well  every- 
thing that  goes  on  in  the  Thuillier  household  not  to  be 
aware  that  the  event  you  speak  of  is  not  approaching, 
and,  I  may  add,  not  probable. " 

"No,  I  assure  you,  I  know  nothing;  I  have  strictly 
forbidden  myself  from  taking  any  further  interest  in  an 
affair  which  I  felt  I  had  meddled  with  very  foolishly. 
Mademoiselle  Brigitte  and  I  talk  of  everything  except 
Celeste's  marriage." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  353 

"And  it  is  no  doubt  the  desire  to  allow  me  perfect 
freedom  in  the  matter  that  induces  you  to  take  flight 
whenever  I  have  the  honor  to  meet  you  in  the  Thuillier 
salon  ?  " 

"Yes,"  said  the  countess,  "that  ought  to  be  the  reason 
that  makes  me  leave  the  room ;  else,  why  should  I  be  so 
distant?  " 

"Ah!  madame,  there  are  other  reasons  that  might 
make  a  woman  avoid  a  man's  presence.  For  instance, 
if  he  has  displeased  her;  if  the  advice,  given  to  him 
with  rare  wisdom  and  kindness,  was  not  received  with 
proper  eagerness  and  gratitude." 

"Oh,  my  dear  monsieur,"  she  replied,  "I  have  no  such 
ardor  in  proselyting  that  I  am  angry  with  those  who  are 
not  docile  to  my  advice.  I  am,  like  others,  very  apt  to 
make  mistakes." 

"On  the  contrary,  madame,  in  the  matter  of  my  mar- 
riage your  judgment  was  perfectly  correct." 

"How  so?"  said  the  countess,  eagerly.  "Has  the 
seizure  of  the  pamphlet,  coming  directly  after  the  failure 
to  obtain  the  cross,  led  to  a  rupture?" 

"No,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "my  influence  in  the  Thuillier 
household  rests  on  a  solid  basis;  the  services  I  have 
rendered  Mademoiselle  Brigitte  and  her  brother  outweigh 
these  checks,  which,  after  all,  are  not  irreparable." 

"Do  you  really  think  so?  "  said  the  countess. 

"Certainly,"  replied  la  Peyrade;  "when  the  Comtesse 
du  Bruel  takes  it  into  her  head  to  seriously  obtain  that 
bit  of  red  ribbon,  she  can  do  so,  in  spite  of  all  obstacles 
that  are  put  in  her  way." 

The  countess  received  this  assertion  with  a  smile,  and 
shook  her  head. 

"But,  madame,  only  a  day  or  two  ago  Madame  du 
Bruel  told  Madame  Colleville  that  the  unexpected  oppo- 
sition she  had  met  with  piqued  her,  and  that  she  meant 
to  go  in  person  to  the  minister." 

23 


354:  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"But  you  forget  that  since  then  this  seizure  has  been 
made  by  the  police;  it  is  not  usual  to  decorate  a  man 
who  is  summoned  before  the  court  of  assizes.  You  seem 
not  to  notice  that  the  seizure  argues  a  strong  ill-will 
against  Monsieur  Thuillier,  and,  I  may  add,  against 
yourself,  monsieur,  for  you  are  known  to  be  the  culprit. 
You  have  not,  I  think,  taken  all  this  into  account.  The 
authorities  appear  to  have  acted  not  wholly  from  legal 
causes." 

La  Peyrade  looked  at  the  countess. 

"I  must  own,"  he  said,  after  that  rapid  glance,  "that 
I  have  tried  in  vain  to  find  any  passage  in  that  pamphlet 
which  could  be  made  a  legal  pretext  for  the  seizure." 

"In  my  opinion,"  said  the  countess,  "the  king's  ser- 
vants must  have  a  vivid  imagination  to  persuade  them- 
selves they  were  dealing  with  a  seditious  publication. 
But  that  only  proves  the  strength  of  the  underground 
power  which  is  thwarting  all  your  good  intentions  in 
favor  of  Monsieur  Thuillier." 

"Madame,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "do  you  know  our  secret 
enemies?  " 

"Perhaps  I  do,"  replied  the  countess,  with  another 
smile. 

"May  I  dare  to  utter  a  suspicion,  madame?"  said 
la  Peyrade,  with  some  agitation. 

"Yes,  say  what  you  think,"  replied  Madame  de 
Godollo.     "I  shall  not  blame  you  if  you  guess  right." 

"Well,  madame,  our  enemies,  Thuillier's  and  mine, 
are  —  a  woman." 

"Supposing  that  is  so,"  said  the  countess;  "do  you 
know  how  many  lines  Richelieu  required  from  a  man's 
hand  in  order  to  hang  him  ?  " 

"Four,"  replied  la  Peyrade. 

"You  can  imagine,  then,  that  a  pamphlet  of  two  hun- 
dred pages  might  afford  a  —  slightly  intriguing  woman 
sufficient  ground  for  persecution." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  355 

"I  see  it  all,  madame,  I  understand  it!  "  cried  la 
Peyrade,  with  animation.  "I  believe  that  woman  to  be 
one  of  the  elite  of  her  sex,  with  as  much  mind  and  malice 
as  Richelieu!  Adorable  magician!  it  is  she  who  has  set 
in  motion  the  police  and  the  gendarmes ;  but,  more  than 
that,  it  is  she  who  withholds  that  cross  the  ministers  were 
about  to  give." 

"If  that  be  so,"  said  the  countess,  "why  struggle 
against  her?  " 

"Ah!  I  struggle  no  longer,"  said  la  Peyrade.  Then, 
with  an  assumed  air  of  contrition,  he  added,  "You  must, 
indeed,  hate  me,  madame. 

"Not  quite  as  much  as  you  may  think,"  replied  the 
countess;  "but,  after  all,  suppose  that  I  do  hate  you?  " 

"Ah!  madame,"  cried  la  Peyrade,  ardently,  "I  should 
then  be  the  happiest  of  unhappy  men;  for  that  hatred 
would  seem  to  me  sweeter  and  more  precious  than  your 
indifference.  But  you  do  not  hate  me;  why  should  you 
feel  to  me  that  most  blessed  feminine  sentiment  which 
Scribe  has  depicted  with  such  delicacy  and  wit?" 
.  Madame  de  Godollo  did  not  answer  immediately.  She 
lowered  her  eyelids,  and  the  deeper  breathing  of  her 
bosom  gave  to  her  voice  when  she  did  speak  a  tremulous 
tone : — 

"The  hatred  of  a  woman!  "  she  said.  "Is  a  man  of 
your  stoicism  able  to  perceive  it?  " 

"Ah!  yes,  madame,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  "I  do  in- 
deed perceive  it,  but  not  to  revolt  against  it;  on  the 
contrary,  I  bless  the  harshness  that  deigns  to  hurt  me. 
Now  that  I  know  my  beautiful  and  avowed  enemy,  I 
shall  not  despair  of  touching  her  heart;  for  never  again 
will  I  follow  any  road  but  the  one  that  she  points  out  to 
me,  never  will  I  march  under  any  banner  but  hers.  I 
shall  wait  —  for  her  inspiration,  to  think ;  for  her  will,  to 
will;  for  her  commands,  to  act.  In  all  things  I  will  be 
her  auxiliary, —  more  than  that,  her  slave;  and  if  she  still 


356  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

repulses  me  with  that  dainty  foot,  that  snowy  hand,  I 
will  bear  it  resignedly,  asking,  in  return  for  such  obedi- 
ence one  only  favor, —  that  of  kissing  the  foot  that 
spurns  rne,  of  bathing  with  tears  the  hand  that  threatens 
me !  " 

During  this  long  cry  of  the  excited  heart,  which  the 
joy  of  triumph  wrung  from  a  nature  so  nervous  and 
impressionable  as  that  of  the  Provencal,  he  had  slidden 
from  his  chair,  and  now  knelt  with  one  knee  on  the 
ground  beside  the  countess,  in  the  conventional  attitude 
of  the  stage,  which  is,  however,  much  more  common  in 
real  life  than  people  suppose. 

''Rise,  monsieur,"  said  the  countess,  "and  be  so  good 
as  to  answer  me."  Then,  giving  him  a  questioning  look 
from  beneath  her  beautiful  frowning  brows,  she  con- 
tinued: "Have  you  well-weighed  the  outcome  of  the 
words  you  have  just  uttered  ?  Have  you  measured  the  full 
extent  of  your  pledge,  and  its  depth?  With  your  hand  on 
your  heart  and  on  your  conscience,  are  yon  a  man  to  fulfil 
those  words  ?  Or  are  you  one  of  the  falsely  humble  and 
perfidious  men  who  throw  themselves  at  our  feet  only  to 
make  us  lose  the  balance  of  our  will  and  our  reason?  " 

"I!  "  exclaimed  la  Peyrade ;  "  never  can  I  react  against 
the  fascination  you  have  wielded  over  me  from  the  moment 
of  our  first  interview!  Ah!  madame,  the  more  I  have 
resisted,  the  more  I  have  struggled,  the  more  you  ought 
to  trust  in  my  sincerity  and  its  tardy  expression.  What 
I  have  said,  I  think;  that  which  I  think  aloud  to-day  I 
have  thought  in  my  soul  since  the  hour  when  I  first  had 
the  honor  of  admittance  to  you ;  and  the  many  days  I 
have  passed  in  struggling  against  this  allurement  have 
ended  in  giving  me  a  firm  and  deliberate  will,  which 
understands  itself,  and  is  not  caet  down  by  your 
severity.? 

"Severity?"  said  the  countess;  "possibly.  But  you 
ought  to  think  of  the  kindness  too.     Question  yourself 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  357 

carefully.  We  foreign  women  do  not  understand  the 
careless  ease  with  which  a  Frenchwoman  enters  upon  a 
solemn  engagement.  To  us,  our  yes  is  sacred;  our  word 
is  a  bond.  We  do  and  we  will  nothing  by  halves.  The 
arms  of  my  family  bear  a  motto  which  seems  significant 
under  the  present  circumstances, —  'All  or  Nothing;' 
that  is  saying  much,   and  yet,  perhaps,  not  enough." 

"That  is  how  I  understand  my  pledge,"  replied  la 
Peyrade;  "and  on  leaving  this  room  my  first  step  will 
be  to  break  with  that  ignoble  past  which  for  an  instant 
I  seemed  to  hold  in  the  balance  against  the  intoxicating 
future  you  do  not  forbid  me  to  expect." 

"No,"  said  the  countess,  "do  it  calmly  and  advisedly; 
I  do  not  like  rash  conduct;  you  will  not  please  me  by 
taking  open  steps.  These  Thuilliers  are  not  really  bad 
at  heart;  they  humiliated  you  without  knowing  that  they 
did  so;  their  world  is  not  yours.  Is  that  their  fault? 
Loosen  the  tie  between  you,  but  do  not  violently  break 
it.  And,  above  all,  reflect.  Your  conversion  to  my 
beliefs  is  of  recent  date.  What  man  is  certain  of  what 
his  heart  will  say  to  him  to-morrow  ?" 

"Madame,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "I  am  that  man.  We 
men  of  Southern  blood  do  not  love  as  you  say  a  French- 
woman loves." 

"But,"  said  the  countess,  with  a  charming  smile,  "I 
thought  it  was  hatred  we  were  talking  of." 

"Ah,  madame,"  cried  the  barrister,  "explained  and 
understood  as  it  has  been,  that  word  is  still  a  thing  that 
hurts  me.  Tell  me  rather,  not  that  you  love  me,  but 
that  the  words  you  deigned  to  say  to  me  at  our  first 
interview  were  indeed  the  expression  of  your  thoughts." 

"My  friend,"  said  the  countess,  dwelling  on  the  word; 
"one  of  your  moralists  has  said:  '  There  are  persons  who 
say,  That  is  or  That  is  not. '  Do  me  the  favor  to  count 
me  among  such  persons." 

So  saying,  she  held  out  her  hand  to  her  suitor  with  a 


358  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

charming  gesture  of  modesty  and  grace.  La  Peyrade, 
quite  beside  himself,  darted  upon  that  beautiful  hand 
and  devoured  it  with  kisses. 

"Enough,  child!"  said  the  countess,  gently  freeing 
her  imprisoned  fingers;  "adieu  now,  soon  to  meet  again! 
Adieu!     My  headache,  I  think,  has  disappeared." 

La  Peyrade  picked  up  his  hat,  and  seemed  about  to 
rush  from  the  apartment ;  but  at  the  door  he  turned  and 
cast  upon  the  handsome  creature  a  look  of  tenderness. 
The  countess  made  him,  with  her  head,  a  graceful  ges- 
ture of  adieu;  then,  seeing  that  la  Peyrade  was  inclined 
to  return  to  her,  she  raised  her  forefinger  as  a  warning  to 
control  himself  and  go. 

La  Peyrade  turned  and  left  the  apartment. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  359 


VII. 

HOW    TO    SHUT   THE    DOOR    IN    PEOPLE'S    FACES. 

On  the  staircase  la  Peyrade  stopped  to  exhale,  if  we 
may  so  express  it,  the  happiness  of  which  his  heart  was 
full.  The  words  of  the  countess,  the  ingenious  prepara- 
tion she  had  made  to  put  him  on  the  track  of  her  senti- 
ments, seemed  to  him  the  guarantee  of  her  sincerity,  and 
he  left  her  full  of  faith. 

Possessed  by  that  intoxication  of  happy  persons  which 
shows  itself  in  their  gestures,  their  looks,  their  very  gait, 
and  sometimes  in  actions  not  authorized  by  their  com- 
mon-sense, after  pausing  a  moment,  as  we  have  said,  on 
the  staircase,  he  ran  up  a  few  steps  till  he  could  see  the 
door  of  the  Thuillier  apartment. 

"At  last!"  he  cried,  "fame,  fortune,  happiness  have 
come  to  me;  but,  above  all,  I  can  now  give  myself  the 
joy  of  vengeance.  After  Dutocq  and  Cerizet,  I  will 
crush  you,  vile  bourgeois  brood !  " 

So  saying,  he  shook  his  fist  at  the  innocent  door. 
Then  he  turned  and  ran  out;  the  popular  saying  that  the 
earth  could  not  hold  him,  was  true  at  that  moment  of  his 
being. 

The  next  day,  for  he  could  not  restrain  any  longer  the 
tempest  that  was  swelling  within  him,  la  Peyrade  went 
to  see  Thuillier  in  the  bitterest  and  most  hostile  of 
moods.  What  was  therefore  his  amazement  when,  before 
he  had  time  to  put  himself  on  guard  and  stop  the  demon- 
stration of  union  and  oblivion,  Thuillier  flung  himself 
into  his  arms. 


360  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"My  friend,"  cried  the  municipal  councillor,  as  he 
loosened  his  clasp,  "my  political  fortune  is  made;  this 
morning  all  the  newspapers,  without  exception,  have 
spoken  of  the  seizure  of  my  pamphlet;  and  you  ought 
to  see  how  the  opposition  sheets  have  mauled  the 
government." 

"Simple  enough,"  said  la  Peyrade,  not  moved  by  this 
enthusiasm;  "you  are  a  topic  for  them,  that 's  all.  But 
this  does  not  alter  the  situation ;  the  prosecution  will  be 
only  the  more  determined  to  have  you  condemned." 

"Well,  then,"  said  Thuillier,  proudly  raising  his  head, 
"I  will  go  to  prison,  like  Beranger,  like  Lamennais,  like 
Armand  Carrel." 

"My  good  fellow,  persecution  is  charming  at  a  dis- 
tance; but  when  you  hear  the  big  bolts  run  upon  you, 
you  may  be  sure  you  won't  like  it  as  well." 

"But,"  objected  Thuillier,  "prisoners  condemned  for 
political  offences  are  always  allowed  to  do  their  time  in 
hospitals  if  they  like.  Besides,  I  'm  not  yet  convicted. 
You  said  yourself  you  expected  to  get  me  acquitted." 

"Yes,  but  since  then  I  have  heard  things  which  make 
that  result  very  doubtful ;  the  same  hand  that  withheld 
your  cross  has  seized  your  pamphlet;  you  are  being 
murdered  with  premeditation." 

"If  you  know  who  that  dangerous  enemy  is,"  said 
Thuillier,  "you  can't  refuse  to  point  him  out  to  me." 

"I  don't  know  him,"  replied  la  Peyrade;  "I  only  sus- 
pect him.  This  is  what  you  get  by  playing  too  shrewd  a 
game." 

"Playing  a  shrewd  game!  "  said  Thuillier,  with  the 
curiosity  of  a  man  who  is  perfectly  sure  that  he  has 
nothing  of  that  kind  on  his  conscience.   . 

"Yes,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "you  made  a  sort  of  decoy  of 
Celeste  to  attract  young  bloods  to  your  salon.  All  the 
world  has  not  the  forbearance  of  Monsieur  Godeschal, 
who  forgave  his  rejection  and  generously  managed  that 
affair  about  the  house." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  361 

"Explain  yourself  better,"  said  Thuillier,  "for  I  don't 
see  what  you  mean." 

"Nothing  is  easier  to  understand.  Without  (granting 
me,  how  many  suitors  have  you  had  for  Mademoiselle 
Colleville?  Godeschal,  Minard  junior,  Phellion  junior, 
Olivier  Vinet,  the  substitute  judge,  —  all  men  who  have 
been  sent  about  their  business,  as  I  am." 

"Olivier  Vinet,  the  substitute  judge!  "  cried  Thuillier, 
struck  with  a  flash  of  light.  "Of  course;  the  blow  must 
have  come  from  him.  His  father,  they  say,  has  a  long 
arm.  But  it  can't  be  truly  said  that  we  sent  him  about 
his  business,  —  to  use  your  expression,  which  strikes 
me  as  indecorous,  —  for  he  never  came  to  the  house  but 
once,  and  made  no  offer;  neither  did  Minard  junior  or 
Phellion  junior,  for  that  matter.  Godeschal  is  the  only 
one  who  risked  a  direct  proposal,  and  he  was  refused  at 
once,  before  he  dipped  his  beak  in  the  water." 

"It  is  always  so!  "  said  la  Peyrade,  still  looking  for 
a  ground  of  quarrel.  "Straightforward  and  outspoken 
persons  are  always  those  that  sly  men  boast  of  fooling." 

"Ah  ga!  what 's  all  this?  "  said  Thuillier;  "what  are 
you  insinuating?  Didn't  you  settle  everything  with 
Brigitte  the  other  day  ?  You  take  a  pretty  time  to  come 
and  talk  to  me  about  your  love-affairs,  when  the  sword  of 
justice  is  hanging  over  my  head." 

"Oh!"  said  la  Peyrade,  ironically;  "so  now  you  are 
going  to  make  the  most  of  your  interesting  position  of 
accused  person!  I  knew  very  well  how  it  would  be;  I 
was  certain  that  as  soon  as  your  pamphlet  appeared  the 
old  cry  of  not  getting  what  you  expected  out  of  me  would 
come  up." 

"Parbleu/  your  pamphlet!  "  cried  Thuillier.  "I  think 
you  are  a  fine  fellow  to  boast  of  that  when,  on  the  con- 
trary, it  has  caused  the  most  deplorable  complications." 

"Deplorable  ?  how  so  ?  you  have  just  said  your  political 
fortune  was  made." 


362  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Well,  truly,  my  dear  Th^odose,"  said  Tliuillier,  with 
feeling,  "I  should  never  have  thought  that  you  would 
choose  the  hour  of  adversity  to  come  and  put  your  pistol 
at  our  throats  and  make  me  the  object  of  your  sneers  and 
innuendoes." 

"Well  done!  "  said  la  Peyrade;  "now  it  is  the  hour  of 
adversity!  A  minute  ago  you  were  flinging  yourself  into 
my  arms  as  a  man  to  whom  some  signal  piece  of  luck 
had  happened.  You  ought  really  to  choose  decidedly 
between  being  a  man  who  needs  pity  and  a  glorious 
victor." 

"It  ia  all  very  well  to  be  witty,"  returned  Thuillier; 
"but  you  can't  controvert  what  I  say.  I  am  logical,  if 
I  am  not  brilliant.  It  is  very  natural  that  I  should  con- 
sole myself  by  seeing  that  public  opinion  decides  in  my 
favor,  and  by  reading  in  its  organs  the  most  honorable 
assurances  of  sympathy;  but  do  you  suppose  I  would  n't 
rather  that  things  had  taken  their  natural  course?  Be- 
sides, when  I  see  myself  the  object  of  unworthy  ven- 
geance on  the  part  of  persons  as  influential  as  the 
Vinets,  how  can  I  help  measuring  the  extent  of  the 
dangers  to  which  I  am  exposed?" 

"Well,"  said  la  Peyrade,  with  pitiless  persistency,  "I 
see  that  you  prefer  to  play  the  part  of  Jeremiah." 

"Yes,"  said  Thuillier,  in  a  solemn  tone.  "Jeremiah 
laments  over  a  friendship  I  did  think  true  and  devoted, 
but  which  I  find  has  only  sarcasms  to  give  me  when  I 
looked  for  services." 

"What  services?"  asked  la  Peyrade.  "Did  you  not 
tell  me  positively,  no  later  than  yesterday,  that  you 
would  not  accept  my  help  under  any  form  whatever?  I 
offered  to  plead  your  case,  and  you  answered  that  you 
would  take  a  better  lawyer." 

"Yes;  in  the  first  shock  of  surprise  at  such  an  unex- 
pected blow,  I  did  say  that  foolish  thing;  but,  on  reflec- 
tion, who  can  explain  as  well  as  you  can  the  intention 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  363 

of  the  words  you  wrote  with  your  own  pen?  Yester- 
day I  was  almost  out  of  my  mind ;  but  you,  with  your 
wounded  self-love,  which  can't  forgive  a  momentary 
impatience,  you  are  very  caustic  and  very  cruel." 

"So,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "you  formally  request  me  to 
defend  you  before  the  jury?  " 

"Yes,  my  dear  fellow;  and  I  don't  know  any  other 
hands  in  which  I  could  better  place  my  cause.  I  should 
have  to  pay  a  monstrous  sum  to  some  great  legal 
luminary,  and  he  would  n't  defend  me  as  ably  as  you." 

"Well,  I  refuse.  Roles  have  changed,  as  you  see, 
diametrically.  Yesterday,  I  thought,  as  you  do,  that  I 
was  the  man  to  defend  you.  To-day,  I  see  that  you  had 
better  take  the  legal  luminary,  because,  with  Vinet's 
antagonism  against  you  the  affair  is  taking  such  pro- 
portions that  whoever  defends  it  assumes  a  fearful 
responsibility." 

"I  understand,"  said  Thuillier,  sarcastically.  "Mon- 
sieur has  his  eye  on  the  magistracy,  and  he  doesn't  want 
to  quarrel  with  a  man  who  is  already  talked  of  for  Keeper 
of  the  Seals.  It  is  prudent,  but  I  don't  know  that  it  is 
going  to  help  on  your  marriage." 

"You  mean,"  said  la  Peyrade,  seizing  the  ball  in  its 
bound,  "that  to  get  you  out  of  the  claws  of  that  jury  is 
a  thirteenth  labor  of  Hercules,  imposed  upon  me  to  earn 
the  hand  of  Mademoiselle  Colleville?  I  expected  that 
demands  would  multiply  in  proportion  to  the  proofs  of 
my  devotion.  But  that  is  the  very  thing  that  has  worn 
me  out,  and  I  have  come  here  to-day  to  put  an  end  to 
this  slave  labor  by  giving  back  to  you  your  pledges. 
You  may  dispose  of  Celeste's  hand;  for  my  part,  I  am 
no  longer  a  suitor  for  it." 

The  unexpectedness  and  squareness  of  this  declara- 
tion left  Thuillier  without  words  or  voice,  all  the  more 
because  at  this  moment  entered  Brigitte.  The  temper 
of  the  old  maid  had  also  greatly  moderated  since  the 


364  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

previous  evening,  and  her  greeting  was  full  of  the  most 
amicable  familiarity. 

"Ah!  so  here  you  are,  you  good  old  barrister,"  she 
said. 

"Mademoiselle,  your  servant,"  he  replied,  gravely. 

"Well,"  she  continued,  paying  no  attention  to  the 
stiffness  of  his  manner,  "the  government  has  got  itself 
into  a  pretty  mess  by  seizing  your  pamphlet.  You 
ought  to  see  how  the  morning  papers  lash  it!  Here," 
she  added,  giving  Thuillier  a  small  sheet  printed  on 
sugar-paper,  in  coarse  type,  and  almost  illegible,  — 
"here's  another,  you  didn't  read;  the  porter  has  just 
brought  it  up.  It  is  a  paper  from  our  old  quarter, 
'  L'ficho  de  la  Bievre.'  I  don't  know,  gentlemen,  if 
you  '11  be  of  my  opinion,  but  I  think  nothing  could  be 
better  written.  It  is  droll,  though,  how  inattentive  these 
journalists  are!  most  of  them  write  your  name  without 
the  h;  I  think  you  ought  to  complain  of  it." 

Thuillier  took  the  paper,  and  read  the  article  inspired 
to  the  reviewer  of  the  tanner's  organ  by  stomach  gratitude. 
Never  in  her  life  had  Brigitte  paid  the  slightest  attention 
to  a  newspaper,  except  to  know  if  it  was  the  right  size 
for  the  packages  she  wrapped  up  in  it;  but  now,  sud- 
denly, converted  to  a  worship  of  the  press  by  the  ardor 
of  her  sisterly  love,  she  stood  behind  Thuillier  and  re- 
read, over  his  shoulder,  the  more  striking  passages  of 
the  page  she  thought  so  eloquent,  pointing  her  finger  to 
them. 

"Yes,"  said  Thuillier,  folding  up  the  paper,  "that 's 
warm,  and  very  flattering  to  me.  But  here 's  another 
matter!  Monsieur  has  come  to  tell  me  that  he  refuses 
to  plead  for  me,  and  renounces  all  claim  to  Celeste's 
hand." 

"That  is  to  say,"  said  Brigitte,  "he  renounces  her  if, 
after  having  pleaded,  the  marriage  does  not  take  place 
subito.     Well,  poor  fellow,  I  think  that's  a  reasonable 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  365 

demand.  When  he  has  done  that  for  us  there  ought  to 
be  no  further  delay ;  and  whether  Mademoiselle  Celeste 
likes  it  or  not,  she  must  accept  him,  because,  you  know, 
there  's  an  end  to  all  things." 

"Do  you  hear  that,  my  good  fellow?  "  said  la  Peyrade, 
seizing  upon  Brigitte' s  speech.  "  When  I  have  pleaded, 
the  marriage  is  to  take  place.  Your  sister  is  frankness 
itself;  she,  at  least,  does  n't  practise  diplomacy." 

"Diplomacy!  "  echoed  Brigitte.  "I  'd  like  to  see  my- 
self creeping  underground  in  matters.  I  say  things  as  I 
think  them.  The  workman  has  worked,  and  he  ought  to 
have  his  pay." 

"Do  be  silent,"  cried  Thuillier,  stamping  his  foot; 
"you  don't  say  a  word  that  does  n't  turn  the  knife  in  the 
wound." 

"The  knife  in  the  wound?  "  said  Brigitte,  inquiringly. 
"Ah  ca  !  are  you  two  quarrelling?  " 

"I  told  you,"  said  Thuillier,  "that  la  Peyrade  had 
returned  our  promises ;  and  the  reason  he  gives  is  that 
we  are  asking  him  another  service  for  Celeste's  hand. 
He  thinks  he  has  done  us  enough  without  it." 

"He  has  done  us  some  services,  no  doubt,"  said 
Brigitte;  "but  it  seems  to  me  that  we  have  not  been 
ungrateful  to  him.  Besides,  it  was  he  who  made  the 
blunder,  and  I  think  it  rather  odd  he  should  now  wish 
to  leave  us  in  the  lurch." 

"Your  reasoning,  mademoiselle,"  said  la  Peyrade, 
"might  have  some  appearance  of  justice  if  I  were  the 
only  barrister  in  Paris ;  but  as  the  streets  are  black  with 
them,  and  as,  only  yesterday,  Thuillier  himself  spoke  of 
engaging  some  more  important  lawyer  than  myself,  I 
have  not  the  slightest  scruple  in  refusing  to  defend  him. 
Now,  as  to  the  marriage,  in  order  that  it  may  not  be 
made  the  object  of  another  brutal  and  forcible  demand 
upon  me,  I  here  renounce  it  in  the  most  formal  manner, 
and  nothing  now  prevents  Mademoiselle  Colleville  from 


366  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

accepting  Monsieur  Felix  Pbellion  and   all  bis  advan- 
tages. " 

"  As  you  please,  my  dear  monsieur,"  said  Brigitte,  "if 
that 's  your  last  word.  We  shall  not  be  at  a  loss  to  find 
a  husband  for  Celeste, —  Felix  Pbellion  or  another.  But 
you  must  permit  me  to  tell  you  that  the  reason  you  give 
is  not  the  true  one.  We  can't  go  faster  than  the  fiddles. 
If  the  marriage  were  settled  to-day,  there  are  the  banns 
to  publish ;  you  have  sense  enough  to  know  that  Mon- 
sieur le  maire  can't  marry  you  before  the  formalities  are 
complied  with,  and  before  then  Thuillier's  case  will  have 
been  tried." 

"Yes,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "and  if  I  lose  the  case  it  will 
be  I  who  have  sent  him  to  prison, — just  as  yesterday  it 
was  I  who  brought  about  the  seizure." 

uAs  for  that,  it  seems  to  me  that  if  you  had  written 
nothing  the  police  would  have  found  nothing  to  bite." 

"My  dear  Brigitte,"  said  Thuillier,  seeing  la  Peyrade 
shrug  his  shoulders,  "your  argument  is  vicious  in  the 
sense  that  the  writing  was  not  incriminating  on  any  side. 
It  is  not  la  Peyrade's  fault  if  persons  of  high  station 
have  organized  a  persecution  against  me.  You  remem- 
ber that  little  substitute,  Monsieur  Olivier  Vinet,  whom 
Cardot  brought  to  one  of  our  receptions.  It  seems  that 
he  and  his  father  are  furious  that  we  did  n't  want  him 
for  Caleste,  and  they've  sworn  my  destruction." 

"Well,  why  did  we  refuse  him,"  said  Brigitte,  "if  it 
wasn't  for  the  fine  eyes  of  monsieur  here?  For,  after 
all,  a  substitute  in  Paris  is  a  very  suitable  match." 

"No  doubt,"  said  la  Peyrade,  nonchalantly.  "Only, 
he  did  not  happen  to  bring  you  a  million." 

"Ah!"  cried  Brigitte,  firing  up.  "If  you  are  going 
to  talk  any  more  about  that  house  you  helped  us  to  buy, 
I  shall  tell  you  plainly  that  if  you  had  had  the  money  to 
trick  the  notary  you  never  would  have  come  after  us. 
You  need  n't  think  I   have  been  altogether  your  dupe. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  367 

You  spoke  just  now  of  a  bargain,  but  you  proposed  that 
bargain  yourself.  '  Give  me  Celeste  and  I  '11  get  you  that 
house,'  —  that 's  what  you  said  to  us  in  so  many  words. 
Besides  which,  we  had  to  pay  large  sums  on  which  we 
never  counted." 

"Come,  come,  Brigitte,"  said  Thuillier,  "you  are 
making  a  great  deal  out  of  nothing." 

"Nothing!  nothing!"  exclaimed  Brigitte.  "Did  we, 
or  did  we  not,  have  to  pay  much  more  than  we 
expected  ?  " 

"My  dear  Thuillier,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "I  think,  with 
you,  that  the  matter  is  now  settled,  and  it  can  only  be 
embittered  by  discussing  it  further.  My  course  was 
decided  on  before  I  came 'here;  all  that  I  have  now 
heard  can  only  confirm  it.  I  shall  not  be  the  husband  of 
Celeste,  but  you  and  I  can  remain  good  friends." 

He  rose  to  leave  the  room. 

"One  moment,  monsieur,"  said  Brigitte,  barring  his 
way;  "there  is  one  matter  which  I  do  not  consider 
settled;  and  now  that  we  are  no  longer  to  have  interests 
in  common,  I  should  not  be  sorry  if  you  would  be  so 
good  as  to  tell  me  what  has  become  of  a  sum  of  ten 
thousand  francs  which  Thuillier  gave  you  to  bribe  those 
rascally  government  offices  in  order  to  get  the  cross  we 
have  never  got." 

"Brigitte!"  cried  Thuillier,  in  anguish,  "you  have  a 
devil  of  a  tongue!  You  ought  to  be  silent  about  that; 
I  told  it  to  you  in  a  moment  of  ill-temper,  and  you 
promised  me  faithfully  never  to  open  your  lips  about  it 
to  an j7  one,  no  matter  who." 

"So  I  did;  but,"  replied  the  implacable  Brigitte,  "we 
are  parting.  When  people  part  they  settle  up;  they 
pay  their  debts.  Ten  thousand  francs !  For  my  part,  I 
thought  the  cross  itself  dear  at  that ;  but  for  a  cross  that 
has  melted  away,  monsieur  himself  will  allow  the  price 
is  too  hi^'h." 


368  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Come,  la  Peyrade,  my  friend,  don't  listen  to  her," 
said  Thuillier,  going  up  to  the  barrister,  who  was  pale 
with  anger.  "The  affection  she  has  for  me  blinds  her; 
I  know  very  well  what  government  offices  are,  and  I 
should  n't  be  surprised  if  you  had  had  to  pay  out  money 
of  your  own." 

"Monsieur,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "I  am,  unfortunately, 
not  in  a  position  to  return  to  you,  instantly,  that  money, 
an  accounting  for  which  is  so  insolently  demanded. 
Grant  me  a  short  delay ;  and  have  the  goodness  to  accept 
my  note,  which  I  am  ready  to  sign,  if  that  will  give 
you  patience." 

"To  the  devil  with  your  note!  "  cried  Thuillier;  "you 
owe  me  nothing;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  we  who  owe  you; 
for  Cardot  told  me  I  ought  to  give  you  at  least  ten  thou- 
sand francs  for  enabling  us  to  buy  this  magnificent 
property." 

"Cardot!  Cardot!"  said  Brigitte;"he  is  very  generous 
with  other  people's  money.  We  were  giving  monsieur 
Celeste,  and  that 's  a  good  deal  more  than  ten  thousand 
francs." 

La  Peyrade  was  too  great  a  comedian  not  to  turn  the 
humiliation  he  had  just  endured  into  a  scenic  finale. 
With  tears  in  his  voice,  which  presently  fell  from  his 
eyes,  he  turned  to  Brigitte. 

"Mademoiselle,"  he  said,  "when  I  had  the  honor  to 
be  received  by  you  I  was  poor;  you  long  saw  me  suffer- 
ing and  ill  at  ease,  knowing,  alas!  too  well,  the  indig- 
nities that  poverty  must  bear.  From  the  day  that  I  was 
able  to  give  you  a  fortune  which  I  never  thought  of  for 
myself  I  have  felt,  it  is  true,  more  assurance;  and  your 
own  kindness  encouraged  me  to  rise  out  of  my  timidity 
and  depression.  To-day,  when  I,  by  frank  and  loyal 
conduct,  release  you  from  anxiety,  —  for,  if  you  chose 
to  be  honest,  you  would  acknowledge  that  you  have  been 
thinking  of  another  husband  for  Celeste,  —  we  might 
still  remain  friends,  even  though  I  renounce  a  marriage 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  369 

which  my  delicacy  forbids  me  to  pursue.  But  you  have 
not  chosen  to  restrain  yourself  within  the  limits  of  social 
politeness,  of  which  you  have  a  model  beside  }^ou  in 
Madame  de  Godollo,  who,  I  am  persuaded,  although  she 
is  not  at  all  friendly  to  me,  would  never  have  approved 
of  your  odious  behavior.  Thank  Heaven!  I  have  in 
my  heart  some  religious  sentiment  at  least;  the  Gos- 
pel is  not  to  me  a  mere  dead-letter,  and  —  understand 
me  well,  mademoiselle  —  /  forgive  you.  ■  It  is  not  to 
Thuillier,  who  would  refuse  them,  but  to  you  that  I 
shall,  before  long,  pay  the  ten  thousand  francs  which 
you  insinuate  I  have  applied  to  my  own  purposes.  If, 
by  the  time  they  are  returned  to  you,  you  feel  regret  for 
your  unjust  suspicions,  and  are  unwilling  to  accept  the 
money,  I  request  that  you  will  turn  it  over  to  the  bureau 
of  Benevolence,  to  the  poor  —  " 

"To  the  bureau  of  Benevolence!  "  cried  Brigitte,  inter- 
rupting him.  "No,  I  thank  you!  the  idea  of  all  that 
money  being  distributed  among  a  crowd  of  do-nothings 
and  devotes,  who'll  spend  it  in  junketing!  I've  been 
poor,  too,  my  lad;  I  made  bags  for  the  money  of  others 
long  before  I  had  any  money  of  my  own ;  I  have  some 
now,  and  I  take  care  of  it.  So,  whenever  you  will,  I  am 
ready  to  receive  that  ten  thousand  francs  and  keep  it. 
If  you  did  n't  know  how  to  do  what  you  undertook  to 
do,  and  spent  that  money  in  trying  to  put  salt  on  a 
sparrow's  tail,  so  much  the  worse  for  you." 

Seeing  that  he  had  missed  his  effect,  and  had  made 
not  the  slightest  impression  on  Brigitte's  granite,  la 
Peyrade  cast  a  disdainful  look  upon  her  and  left  the 
room  majestically.  As  he  did  so  he  noticed  a  movement 
made  by  Thuillier  to  follow  him,  and  also  the  imperious 
gesture  of  Brigitte,  always  queen  and  mistress,  which 
nailed  her  brother  to  his  chair. 

24 


370  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


VIII. 

A    RUN    OF    ILL-LUCK. 

At  the  moment  when  la  Peyrade  was  preparing  to  lay 
at  the  feet  of  the  countess  the  liberty  he  had  recovered 
in  so  brutal  a  manner,  he  received  a  perfumed  note, 
which  made  his  heart  beat,  for  on  the  seal  was  that 
momentous  "All  or  Nothing"  which  she  had  given  him 
as  the  rule  of  the  relation  now  to  be  inaugurated  between 
them.     The  contents  of  the  note  were  as  follows :  — 

Dear  Monsieur,  — I  have  heard  of  the  step  you  have  taken ; 
thank  you  !  But  I  must  now  prepare  to  take  my  own.  I  can- 
not, as  you  may  well  think,  continue  to  live  in  this  house,  and 
among  these  people  who  are  so  little  of  our  own  class  and  with 
whom  we  have  nothing  in  common.  To  arrange  this  trans- 
ition, and  to  avoid  explanations  of  the  fact  that  the  entresol 
welcomes  the  voluntary  exile  from  the  first-floor,  I  need  to- 
day and  to-morrow  to  myself.  Do  not  therefore  come  to  see 
me  until  the  day  after.  By  that  time  I  shall  have  executed 
Brigitte,  as  they  say  at  the  Bourse,  and  have  much  to  tell  you. 
Tua  tota, 

TORNA  DE  GODOLLO. 

That  "Wholly  thine  "  in  Latin  seemed  charming  to  la 
Peyrade,  who  was  not,  however,  astonished,  for  Latin 
is  a  second  national  language  to  Hungarians.  The  two 
days'  waiting  to  which  he  was  thus  condemned  only 
fanned  the  flame  of  the  ardent  passion  which  possessed 
him,  and  on  the  third  day  when  he  reached  the  house  by 
the  Madeleine  his  love  had  risen  to  a  degree  of  incan- 
descence of  which  only  a  few  days  earlier  he  would 
scarcely  have  supposed  himself  capable. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  371 

This  time  the  porter's  wife  perceived  him;  but  he  was 
now  quite  indifferent  as  to  whether  or  not  the  object  of 
his  visit  should  be  known.  The  ice  was  broken,  his 
happiness  was  soon  to  be  official,  and  he  was  more 
disposed  to  cry  it  aloud  in  the  streets  than  to  make  a 
mystery  of  it. 

Running  lightly  up  the  stairs,  he  prepared  to  ring  the 
bell,  when,  on  putting  out  his  hand  to  reach  the  silken 
bell-cord  he  perceived  that  the  bell-cord  had  disappeared. 
La  Peyrade's  first  thought  was  that  one  of  those  serious 
illnesses  which  make  all  noises  intolerable  to  a  patient 
would  explain  its  absence;  but  with  the  thought  came 
other  observations  that  weakened  it,  and  which,  more- 
over,  were  not  in  themselves  comforting. 

From  the  vestibule  to  the  countess's  door  a  stair 
carpet,  held  at  each  step  by  a  brass  rod,  made  a  soft 
ascent  to  the  feet  of  visitors ;  this,  too,  had  been  removed. 
A  screen-door  covered  with  green  velvet  and  studded 
with  brass  nails  had  hitherto  protected  the  entrance  to 
the  apartment;  of  that  no  sign,  except  the  injury  to  the 
wall  done  by  the  workmen  in  taking  it  away.  For  a 
moment  the  barrister  thought,  in  his  agitation,  that  he 
must  have  mistaken  the  floor,  but,  casting  his  eye  over 
the  baluster  he  saw  that  he  had  not  passed  the  entresol. 
Madame  de  Godollo  must,  therefore,  be  in  the  act  of 
moving  away. 

He  then  resigned  himself  to  make  known  his  presence 
at  the  great  lady's  door  as  he  would  have  done  at  that  of 
a  grisette.  He  rapped  with  his  knuckles,  but  a  hollow 
sonority  revealing  the  void,  intonuere  cavernce,  echoed 
beyond  the  door  which  he  vainly  appealed  to  with  his 
fist.  He  also  perceived  from  beneath  that  door  a  ray  of 
vivid  light,  the  sure  sign  of  an  uninhabited  apartment 
where  curtains  and  carpets  and  furniture  no  longer  dim 
the  light  or  deaden  sound.  Compelled  to  believe  in  a 
total    removal,    la  Peyrade   now   supposed   that   in   the 


372  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

rupture  with  Brigitte,  mentioned  as  probable  by  Madame 
de  Godollo,  some  brutal  insolence  of  the  old  maid  had 
necessitated  this  abrupt  departure.  But  why  had  he  not 
been  told  of  it?  And  what  an  idea,  to  expose  him  to  this 
ridiculous  meeting  with  what  the  common  people  call,  in 
their  picturesque  language,  "the  wooden  face  "! 

Before  leaving  the  door  finally,  and  as  if  some  doubt 
still  remained  in  his  mind,  la  Peyrade  made  a  last  and 
most  thundering  assault  upon  it. 

"Who  's  knocking  like  that,  as  if  they  'd  bring  the 
house  down?"  said  the  porter,  attracted  by  the  noise  to 
the  foot  of  the  staircase* 

"Does  n't  Madame  de  Godollo  still  live  here?  "  asked 
la  Peyrade. 

"Of  course  she  does  n't  live  here  now;  she  has  moved 
away.  If  monsieur  had  told  me  he  was  going  to  her 
apartment  I  would  have  spared  him  the  trouble  of  batter- 
ing down  the  door." 

"I  knew  that  she  was  going  to  leave  the  apartment," 
said  la  Peyrade,  not  wishing  to  seem  ignorant  of  the 
project  of  departure,  "but  I  had  no  idea  she  was  going 
so  soon." 

"I  suppose  it  was  something  sudden,"  said  the  porter, 
"for  she  went  off  early  this  morning  with  post-horses." 

"Post-horses!"  echoed  la  Peyrade,  stupefied.  "Then 
she  has  left  Paris?" 

"That's  to  be  supposed,"  said  the  porter;  "people 
don't  usually  take  post-horses  and  a  postilion  to  change 
from  one  quarter  of  Paris  to  another." 

"And  she  did  not  tell  you  where  she  was  going?  " 

"Ah!  monsieur,  what  an  idea!  Do  people  account  to 
us  porters  for  what  they  do  ?  " 

"No,  but  her  letters  —  those  that  come  after  her 
departure  ?  " 

"Her  letters?  I  am  ordered  to  deliver  them  to  Mon- 
sieur le  commandeur,  the  little  old  gentleman  who  came 
to  see  her  so  often;  monsieur  must  have  met  him." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  373 

"Yes,  yes,  certainly,"  said  la  Peyrade,  keeping  his 
presence  of  mind  in  the  midst  of  the  successive  shocks 
which  came  upon  him, — wtthe  powdered  little  man  who 
was  here  every  day." 

"I  could  n't  say  every  day;  but  he  came  often.  Well, 
I  am  told  to  give  the  countess's  letters  to  him." 

"And  for  other  persons  of  her  acquaintance,"  said  la 
Peyrade,  carelessly,  "did  she  leave  no  message?" 

"None,  monsieur." 

"Very  well,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "good-morning."  And 
he  turned  to  go  out. 

"But  I  think,"  said  the  porter,  "that  Mademoiselle 
Thuillier  knows  more  about  it  than  I  do.  Won't  mon- 
sieur go  up?  She  is  at  home;  and  so  is  Monsieur 
Thuillier." 

"No,  never  mind,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "I  only  came  to 
tell  Madame  de  Godollo  about  a  commission  she  asked 
me  to  execute;  I  have  n't  time  to  stop  now." 

"Well,  as  I  told  you,  she  left  with  post-horses  this 
morning.  Two  hours  earlier  monsieur  might  still  have 
found  her;  but  now,  with  post-horses,  she  must  by  this 
time  have  gone  a  good  distance." 

La  Peyrade  departed,  with  a  sense  of  despair  in  his 
heart.  Added  to  the  anxiety  caused  by  this  hasty 
departure,  jealousy  entered  his  soul,  and  in  this  agoniz- 
ing moment  of  disappointment  the  most  distressing 
explanations  crowded  on  his  mind. 

Then,  after  further  reflection,  he  said  to  himself:  — 

"These  clever  diplomatic  women  are  often  sent  on 
secret  missions  which  require  the  most  absolute  silence, 
and  extreme  rapidity  of  movement." 

But  here  a  sudden  revulsion  of  thought  overcame 
him :  — 

"Suppose  she  were  one  of  those  intriguing  adventurers 
whom  foreign  governments  employ  as  agents?  Suppose 
the  tale,  more  or  less  probable,  of  that  Russian  princess 


374  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

forced  to  sell  her  furniture  to  Brigitte  were  also  that  of 
this  Hungarian  countess?  And  yet,"  he  continued,  as 
his  brain  made  a  third  evolution  in  this  frightful  anarchy 
of  ideas  and  feelings,  "her  education,  her  manners,  her 
language,  all  bespoke  a  woman  of  the  best  position. 
Besides,  if  she  were  only  a  bird  of  passage,  why  have 
given  herself  so  much  trouble  to  win  me  over?" 

La  Peyrade  might  have  continued  to  plead  thus  for 
and  against  for  a  long  time  had  he  not  been  suddenly 
grasped  round  the  shoulders  by  a  strong  arm  and  addressed 
in  a  well-known  voice. 

4 'Take  care!  my  dear  barrister;  a  frightful  danger 
threatens  you;  you  are  running  right  into  it." 

La  Peyrade,  thus  arrested,  looked  round  and  found 
himself  in  the  arms  of  Phellion. 

The  scene  took  place  in  front  of  a  house  which  was 
being  pulled  down  at  the  corner  of  the  rues  Duphot  and 
Saint-Honore.  Posted  on  the  pavement  of  the  other 
side  of  the  street,  Phellion,  whose  taste  for  watching 
the  process  of  building  our  readers  may  remember,  had 
been  witnessing  for  the  last  fifteen  minutes  the  drama 
of  a  wall  about  to  fall  beneath  the  united  efforts  of  a 
squadron  of  workmen.  Watch  in  hand,  the  great  citizen 
was  estimating  the  length  of  the  resistance  which  that 
mass  of  freestone  would  present  to  the  destructive  labor 
of  which  it  was  the  object.  Precisely  at  the  crucial 
moment  of  the  impending  catastrophe  la  Peyrade,  lost  in 
the  tumult  of  his  thoughts,  was  entering,  heedless  of  the 
shouts  addressed  to  him  on  all  sides,  the  radius  within 
which  the  stones  would  fall.  Seen  by  Phellion  (who,  it 
must  be  said,  would  have  done  the  same  for  a  total 
stranger)  la  Peyrade  undoubtedly  owed  his  life  to  him ; 
for,  at  the  moment  when  he  was  violently  flung  back  by 
the  vigorous  grasp  of  the  worthy  citizen,  the  wall  fell 
with  the  noise  of  a  cannon-shot,  and  the  stones  rolled  in 
clouds  of  dust  almost  to  his  very  feet. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  375 

"Are  you  blind  and  deaf?"  said  the  workman  whose 
business  it  was  to  warn  the  passers,  in  a  tone  of  amenity 
it  is  easy  to  imagine. 

"Thank  you,  my  dear  friend,"  said  la  Peyrade,  recalled 
to  earth.  "I  should  certainly  have  been  crushed  like  an 
idiot  if  it  had  n't  been  for  you." 

And  he  pressed  Phellion's  hand. 

"My  reward,"  replied  the  latter,  "lies  in  the  satisfac- 
tion of  knowing  that  you  are  saved  from  an  imminent 
peril.  And  I  may  say  that  that  satisfaction  is  mingled, 
for  me,  with  a  certain  pride ;  for  I  was  not  mistaken  by 
a  single  second  in  the  calculation  which  enabled  me  to 
foresee  the  exact  moment  when  that  formidable  mass 
would  be  displaced  from  its  centre  of  gravity.  But  what 
were  you  thinking  of,  my  dear  monsieur?  Probably  of 
the  plea  you  are  about  to  make  in  the  Thuillier  affair. 
The  public  prints  have  informed  me  of  the  danger  of 
prosecution  by  the  authorities  which  hangs  above  the 
head  of  our  estimable  friend.  You  have  a  noble  cause 
to  defend,  monsieur.  Habituated  as  I  am,  through  my 
labors  as  member  of  the  reading  committee  of  the  Odeon, 
to  judge  of  works  of  intellect,  and  with  my  hand  upon 
my  conscience,  I  declare  that  after  reading  the  incrimi- 
nated passages,  I  can  find  nothing  in  the  tone  of  that 
pamphlet  which  justifies  the  severe  measures  of  which  it 
is  the  object.  Between  ourselves,"  added  the  great  citi- 
zen, lowering  his  voice,  "I  think  the  government  has 
shown  itself  petty." 

"So  I  think,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "but  Itim  not  employed 
for  the  defence.  I  have  advised  Thuillier  to  engage 
some  noted  lawyer." 

"It  may  be  good  advice,"  said  Phellion;  "at  any  rate, 
it  speaks  well  for  your  modesty.  Poor  man !  I  went  to 
him  at  once  when  the  blow  fell,  but  I  did  not  see  him; 
I  saw  only  Brigitte,  who  was  having  a  discussion  with 
Madame   de  Godollo.     There   is  a  woman  with  strong 


376  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

political  views;  it  seems  she  predicted  that  the  seizure 
would  be  made." 

"Did  you  know  that  the  countess  had  left  Paris?" 
said  la  Peyrade,  rushing  at  the  chance  of  speaking  on 
the  subject  of  his  present  monomania. 

uAh!  left  Paris,  has  she?"  said  Phellion.  "Well, 
monsieur,  I  must  tell  you  that,  although  there  was  not 
much  sympathy  between  us,  I  regard  her  departure  as  a 
misfortune.  She  will  leave  a  serious  void  in  the  salon 
of  our  friends.  I  say  this,  because  it  is  my  belief,  and 
I  am  not  in  the  habit  of  disguising  my  convictions." 

"Yes,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "she  is  certainly  a  very  dis- 
tinguished woman,  with  whom  in  spite  of  her  prejudice 
against  me,  I  think  I  should  have  come  to  an  under- 
standing. But  this  morning,  without  leaving  any  word 
as  to  where  she  was  going,  she  started  suddenly  with 
post-horses." 

"Post-horses!  "  said  Phellion.  "I  don't  know  whether 
you  will  agree  with  me,  monsieur,  but  I  think  that  travel- 
ling by  post  is  a  most  agreeable  method  of  conveyance. 
Certainly  Louis  XL,  to  whom  we  owe  the  institution, 
had  a  fortunate  inspiration  in  the  matter;  although,  on 
the  other  hand,  his  sanguinary  and  despotic  government 
was  not,  to  my  humble  thinking,  entirely  devoid  of 
reproach.  Once  only  in  my  life  have  I  used  that  method 
of  locomotion,  and  I  can  truly  say  I  found  it  far  superior, 
in  spite  of  its  inferior  relative  rapidity,  to  the  head- 
long course  of  what  in  England  are  called  railways; 
where  speed  is  attained  only  at   the  price  of  safety." 

La  Peyrade  paid  but  little  attention  to  Phellion's 
phraseology.  "Where  can  she  have  gone?"  —  round 
that  idea  he  dug  and  delved  in  every  direction,  an  occu- 
pation that  would  have  made  him  indifferent  to  a  far 
more  interesting  topic.  However,  once  started,  like 
the  locomotive  he  objected  to,  the  great  citizen  went 
on:  —  • 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  377 

"I  made  that  journey  at  the  period  of  Madame  Phel- 
lion's  last  confinement.  She  was  in  Perche,  with  her 
mother,  when  I  learned  that  serious  complications  were 
feared  from  the  milk-fever.  Overcome  with  terror  at  the 
danger  which  threatened  my  wife,  I  went  instantly  to 
the  post-office  to  obtain  a  seat  in  the  mail  coach,  but  all 
were  taken;  I  found  they  had  been  engaged  for  more 
than  a  week.  Upon  that,  I  came  to  a  decision;  I 
went  to  the  rue  Pigalle,  and,  for  a  very  large  sum  in 
gold  a  post-chaise  and  horses  were  placed  at  my  dis- 
posal, when  unfortunately  the  formality  of  a  passport, 
with  which  I  had  neglected  to  supply  myself,  and  with- 
out which,  in  virtue  of  the  decrees  of  the  consulate  of 
17  Nivose,  year  VII.,  the  post1  agents  are  not  permitted 
to  deliver  horses  to  travellers  —  " 

The  last  few  words  were  like  a  flash  of  light  to  la 
Peyrade,  and  without  waiting  for  the  end  of  the  postal 
odyssey  of  the  great  citizen,  he  darted  away  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  rue  Pigalle,  before  Phellion,  in  the  middle  of 
his  sentence,  perceived  his  departure. 

Reaching  the  Royal  postal  establishment,  la  Peyrade 
was  puzzled  to  whom  to  address  himself  in  order  to 
obtain  the  information  he  wanted.  He  began  by  explain- 
ing to  the  porter  that  he  had  a  letter  to  send  to  a  lady  of 
his  acquaintance  who  had  left  Paris  that  morning  by 
post,  neglecting,  very  thoughtlessly,  to  send  him  her 
address,  and  that  he  thought  he  might  discover  it  by 
means  of  the  passport  which  she  must  have  presented 
in  order  to  obtain  horses. 

"Was  it  a  lady  accompanied  by  a  maid  whom  I  took 
up  on  the  boulevard  de  la  Madeleine?"  asked  a  pos- 
tilion sitting  in  the  corner  of  the  room  where  la  Peyrade 
was  making  his  prelim 'nary  inquiry. 

"Exactly,"  said  la  Peyrade,  going  eagerly  up  to  the 
providential  being,  and  slipping  a  five-franc  piece  into 
his  hand. 


378  The  Leaser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Ah!  well,  she's  a  queer  traveller!"  said  the  man: 
"she  told  me  to  take  her  to  the  Bois  de  Boulogne,  and 
there  she  made  me  drive  round  and  round  for  an  hour. 
After  that,  we  came  back  to  the  Barriere  de  T^toile, 
where  she  gave  me  a  good  pourboire  and  got  into  a 
hackney  coach,  telling  me  to  take  the  travelling  carriage 
back  to  the  man  who  lets  such  carriages  in  the  Cour  des 
Coches,  Faubourg  Saint-Honore." 

"Give  me  the  name  of  that  man?"  said  la  Peyrade, 
eagerly. 

"Simonin,"  replied  the  postilion. 

Furnished  with  that  information  la  Peyrade  resumed 
his  course,  and  fifteen  minutes  later  he  was  questioning 
the  livery-stable  keeper;  but  that  individual  knew  only 
that  a  lady  residing  on  the  Boulevard  de  la  Madeleine 
had  hired,  without  horses,  a  travelling-carriage  for  half  a 
day ;  that  he  had  sent  out  the  said  carriage  at  nine  that 
morning,  and  it  was  brought  back  at  twelve  by  a  pos- 
tilion of  the  Royal  Post  house. 

"Never  mind,"  thought  la  Peyrade,  "I  am  certain 
now  she  has  not  left  Paris,  and  is  not  avoiding  me. 
Most  probably,  she  wants  to  break  utterly  with  the 
Thuilliers,  and  so  has  invented  this  journey.  Fool  that 
I  am!  no  doubt  there 's  a  letter  waiting  for  me  at  home, 
explaining  the  whole  thing." 

Worn  out  with  emotion  and  fatigue,  and  in  order  to 
verify  as  quickly  as  possible  this  new  supposition,  la 
Peyrade  flung  himself  into  a  street  cab,  and  in  less 
than  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  having  promised  the  driver  a 
good  pourboire,  he  was  deposited  at  the  house  in  the  rue 
Saint-Dominique  d'Enfer.  There  he  was  compelled  to 
endure  still  longer  the  tortures  of  waiting.  Since 
Brigitte's  departure,  the  duty  of  the  porter,  Coffinet, 
had  been  very  negligently  performed,  and  when  la 
Peyrade  rushed  to  the  lodge  to  inquire  for  his  letter, 
which  he  thought  he  saw  in   the  case  that  belonged  to 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  379 

him,  the  porter  and  his  wife  were  both  absent  and  their 
door  was  locked.  The  wife  was  doing  some  household 
work  in  the  building,  and  Collinet  himself,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  that  circumstance,  had  allowed  a  friend  to 
entice  him  into  a  neighboring  wine-shop,  where,  between 
two  glasses,  he  was  supporting,  against  a  republican  who 
was  talking  disrespectfully  against  it,  the  cause  of  the 
owners  of  property. 

It  was  twenty  minutes  before  the  worthy  porter,  remem- 
bering the  "property"  intrusted  to  his  charge,  decided 
to  return  to  his  post.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  reproaches 
with  which  la  Peyrade  overwhelmed  him.  He  excused 
himself  by  saying  that  he  had  gone  to  do  a  commission 
for  Mademoiselle,  and  that  he  couldn't  be  at  the  door 
and  where  his  masters  chose  to  send  him  at  the  same 
time.  At  last,  however,  he  gave  the  lawyer  a  letter 
bearing  the  Paris  postmark. 

With  his  heart  rather  than  his  eyes  la  Peyrade  recog- 
nized the  handwriting,  and,  turning  over  the  missive, 
the  arms  and  motto  confirmed  the  hope  that  he  had 
reached  the  end  of  the  cruellest  emotion  he  had  ever  in 
his  life  experienced.  To  read  that  letter  before  that 
odious  porter  seemed  to  him  a  profanation.  With  a 
refinement  of  feeling  which  all  lovers  will  understand,  he 
gave  himself  the  pleasure  of  pausing  before  his  happi- 
ness ;  he  would  not  even  unseal  that  blissful  note  until 
the  moment  when,  with  closed  doors  and  no  interruption 
to  distract  him,  he  could  enjoy  at  his  ease  the  delicious 
sensation  of  which  his  heart  had  a  foretaste. 

Rushing  up  the  staircase  two  steps  at  a  time,  the  now 
joyous  lover  committed  the  childish  absurdity  of  locking 
himself  in;  then,  having  settled  himself  at  his  ease  before 
his  desk,  and  .having  broken  the  seal  with  religious  care, 
he  was  forced  to  press  his  hand  on  his  heart,  which 
seemed  to  burst  from  his  bosom,  before  he  could  summon 
calmness  to  read  the  following  letter :  — 


380  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Dear  Monsieur, —  I  disappear  forever,  because  my  play 
is  played  out.  I  thank  you  for  having  made  it  both  attrac- 
tive and  easy.  By  setting  against  you  the  Thuilliers  and 
Collevilles  (who  are  fully  informed  of  your  sentiments  towards 
them),  and  by  relating  in  a  manner  most  mortifying  to  their 
bourgeois  self-love  the  true  reason  of  your  sudden  and  pitiless 
rupture  with  them,  I  am  proud  and  happy  to  believe  that  I 
have  done  you  a  signal  service.  The  girl  does  not  love  you, 
and  you  love  nothing  but  the  eyes  of  her  dot ;  I  have  therefore 
saved  you  both  from  a  species  of  hell.  But,  in  exchange  for 
the  bride  you  have  so  curtly  rejected,  another  charming  girl  is 
proposed  to  you  ;  she  is  richer  and  more  beautiful  than  Made- 
moiselle Colleville,  and — to  speak  of  myself  —  more  at  liberty 
than  Your  unworthy  servant, 

TORNA  "  COMTESSE  DE  GODOLLO." 

P.  S.  For  further  information  apply,  without  delay,  to  Mon- 
sieur du  Portail,  householder,  rue  Honore-Chevalier,  near  the 
rue  de  la  Cassette,  quartier  Saint-Sulpice,  by  whom  you  are 
expected. 

When  he  had  read  this  letter  the  advocate  of  the  poor 
took  his  head  in  his  hands;  he  saw  nothing,  heard  noth- 
ing, thought  nothing;  he  was  annihilated. 

Several  days  were  necessary  to  la  Peyrade  before  he 
could  even  begin  to  recover  from  the  crushing  blow 
which  had  struck  him  down.  The  shock  was  terrible. 
Coming  out  of  that  golden  dream  which  had  shown  him 
a  perspective  of  the  future  in  so  smiling  an  aspect,  he 
found  himself  fooled  under  conditions  most  cruel  to  his 
self-love,  and  to  his  pretensions  to  depth  and  cleverness; 
irrevocably  parted  from  the  Thuilliers;  saddled  with  a 
hopeless  debt  of  twenty-five  thousand  francs  to  Madame 
Lambert,  together  with  another  of  ten  thousand  to 
Brigitte,  which  his  dignity  required  him  to  pay  with 
the  least  delay  possible;  and,  worst  of  all, —  to  complete 
his  humiliation  and  his  sense  of  failure, —  he  felt  that  he 
was  not  cured  of  the  passionate  emotion  he  had  felt  for 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  381 

this  woman,  the  author  of  his  great  disaster,  and  the 
instrument  of  his  ruin. 

Either  this  Delilah  was  a  very  great  lady,  sufficiently 
high  in  station  to  allow  herself  such  compromising 
caprices, —  but  even  so,  she  would  scarcely  have  cared  to 
play  the  role  of  a  coquette  in  a  vaudeville  where  he  him- 
self played  the  part  of  ninny,  —  or  she  was  some  noted 
adventuress  who  was  in  the  pay  of  this  du  Portail  and 
the  agent  of  his  singular  matrimonial  designs.  Evil  life 
or  evil  heart,  these  were  the  only  two  verdicts  to  be 
pronounced  on  this  dangerous  siren,  and  in  either  case, 
it  would  seem,  she  was  not  very  deserving  of  the  regrets 
of  her  victim ;  nevertheless,  he  was  conscious  of  feeling 
them.  We  must  put  ourselves  in  the  place  of  this  son 
of  Provence,  that  region  of  hot  blood  and  ardent  heads, 
who,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  finding  himself  face 
to  face  with  jewelled  love  in  laces,  believed  he  was  to 
drink  that  passion  from  a  wrought-gold  cup.  Just  as  our 
minds  on  waking  keep  the  impression  of  a  vivid  dream 
and  continue  in  love  with  what  we  know  was  but  a 
shadow,  la  Peyrade  had  need  of  all  his  mental  energy  to 
drive  away  the  memory  of  that  treacherous  countess. 
We  might  go  further  and  say  that  he  never  ceased  to 
long  for  her,  though  he  was  careful  to  drape  with  an 
honest  pretext  the  intense  desire  that  he  had  to  find  her. 
That  desire  he  called  curiosity,  ardor  for  revenge;  and 
here  follow  the  ingenious  deductions  which  he  drew  for 
himself:  — 

"Cerizet  talked  to  me  about  a  rich  heiress;  the  count- 
ess, in  her  letter,  intimates  that  the  whole  intrigue  she 
wound  about  me  was  to  lead  to  a  rich  marriage;  rich 
marriages  flung  at  a  man's  head  are  not  so  plentiful  that 
two  such  chances  should  come  to  me  within  a  few  weeks; 
therefore  the  match  offered  by  Cerizet  and  that  pro- 
posed by  the  countess  must  be  the  crazy  girl  they  are  so 
frantic  to  make  me  marry;   therefore  Cerizet,  being  in 


382  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

the  plot,  must  know  the  countess;  therefore,  through 
him  I  shall  get  upon  her  traces.  In  any  case,  I  am  sure 
of  information  about  this  extraordinary  choice  that  has 
fallen  upon  me;  evidently,  these  people,  whoever  they 
are,  who  can  pull  the  wires  of  such  puppets  to  reach  their 
ends  must  be  persons  of  considerable  position;  there- 
fore, I'll  go  and  see  Cerizet." 

And  he  went  to  see  Cerizet. 

Since  the  dinner  at  the  Rocher  de  Cancale,  the  pair  had 
not  met.  Once  or  twice  la  Peyrade  had  asked  Dutocq 
at  the  Thuilliers  (where  the  latter  seldom  went  now,  on 
account  of  the  distance  to  their  new  abode)  what  had 
become  of  his  copying  clerk. 

"He  never  speaks  of  you,"  Dutocq  had  answered. 

Hence  it  might  be  inferred  that  resentment,  the  manet 
alta  mente  repostum  was  still  living  in  the  breast  of  the 
vindictive  usurer.  La  Peyrade,  however,  was  not  stopped 
by  that  consideration.  After  all,  he  was  not  going  to 
ask  for  anything;  he  went  under  the  pretext  of  renew- 
ing an  affair  in  which  Cerizet  had  taken  part,  and  Cerizet 
never  took  part  in  anything  unless  he  had  a  personal 
interest  in  it.  The  chances  were,  therefore,  that  he 
would  be  received  with  affectionate  eagerness  rather  than 
unpleasant  acerbity.  Moreover,  he  decided  to  go  and 
see  the  copying  clerk  at  Dutocq's  office;  it  would  look, 
he  thought,  less  like  a  visit  than  if  he  went  to  his  den 
in  the  rue  des  Poules.  It  was  nearly  two  o'clock  when 
la  Peyrade  made  his  entrance  into  the  precincts  of 
the  justice-of-peace  of  the  12th  arrondissement.  He 
crossed  the  first  room,  in  which  were  a  crowd  of  persons 
whom  civil  suits  of  one  kind  or  another  summoned  before 
the  magistrate.  Without  pausing  in  that  waiting-room, 
la  Peyrade  pushed  on  to  the  office  adjoining  that  of 
Dutocq.  There  he  found  Cerizet  at  a  shabby  desk  of 
blackened  wood,  at  which  another  clerk,  then  absent, 
occupied  the  opposite  seat. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  383 

Seeing  his  visitor,  Cerizet  cast  a  savage  look  at  him 
and  said,  without  rising,  or  suspending  the  copy  of  the 
judgment  he  was  then  engrossing :  — 

"You  here,  Sieur  la  Peyrade?  You  have  been  doing 
fine  things  for  your  friend  Thuillier!  " 

"How  are  you?"  asked  la  Peyrade,  in  a  tone  both 
resolute  and  friendly. 

"I?"  replied  Cerizet.  "As  you  see,  still  rowing  my 
galley ;  and,  to  follow  out  the  nautical  metaphor,  allow 
me  to  ask  what  wind  has  blown  you  hither ;  is  it,  per- 
chance, the  wind  of  adversity?" 

La  Peyrade,  without  replying,  took  a  chair  beside 
his  questioner,  after  which  he  said  in  a  grave  tone :  — 

"My  dear  fellow,  we  have  something  to  say  to  each 
other." 

"I  suppose,"  said  Cerizet,  spitefully,  "the  Thuilliers 
have  grown  cold  since  the  seizure  of  the  pamphlet." 

"The  Thuilliers  are  ungrateful  people;  I  have  broken 
with  them,"  replied  la  Peyrade. 

"Rupture  or  dismissal,"  said  Ce'rizet,  "their  door  is 
shut  against  you;  and  from  what  Dutocq  tells  me,  I 
judge  that  Brigitte  is  handling  you  without  gloves. 
You  see,  my  friend,  what  it  is  to  try  to  manage  affairs 
alone;  complications  come,  and  there  's  no  one  to  smooth 
the  angles.  If  you  had  got  me  that  lease,  I  should  have 
had  a  footing  at  the  Thuilliers ',  Dutocq  would  not  have 
abandoned  you,  and  together  we  could  have  brought  you 
gently  into  port." 

"But  suppose  I  don't  want  to  re-enter  that  port?" 
said  la  Peyrade,  with  some  sharpness.  "I  tell  you  I've 
had  enough  of  those  Thuilliers,  and  I  broke  with  them 
myself;  I  warned  them  to  get  out  of  my  sun;  and  if 
Dutocq  told  you  anything  else  you  may  tell  him  from 
me  that  he  lies.  Is  that  clear  enough?  It  seems  to  me 
I  've  made  it  plain." 

"Well,  exactly,  my  good  fellow,  if  you  are  so  savage 


384  TJie  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

against  your  Thuilliers  you  ought  to  have  put  me  among 
them,  and  then  you  'd  have  seen  me  avenge  you." 

"There  you  are  right,"  said  la  Peyrade;  "I  wish  I 
could  have  set  you  at  their  legs  —  but  as  for  that  matter 
of  the  lease  I  tell  you  again,  I  was  not  master  of  it." 

uOf  course,"  said  Cerizet,  "it  was  your  conscience 
which  obliged  you  to  tell  Brigitte  that  the  twelve  thou- 
sand francs  a  year  I  expected  to  make  out  of  it  were 
better  in  her  pocket  than  in  mine." 

"It  seems  that  Dutocq  continues  the  honorable  profes- 
sion of  spy  which  he  formerly  practised  at  the  ministry 
of  finance,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "and,  like  others  who  do 
that  dirty  business,  he  makes  his  reports  more  witty  than 
truthful  —  " 

"Take  care!"  said  Ce'rizet;  "you  are  talking  of  my 
patron  in  his  own  lair." 

"  Look  here!  "  said  la  Peyrade.  "I  have  come  to  talk 
to  you  on  serious  matters.  Will  you  do  me  the  favor  to 
drop  the  Thuilliers  and  all  their  belongings,  and  give 
me  your  attention  ?  " 

"Say  on,  my  friend,"  said  Ce'rizet,  laying  down  his 
pen,  which  had  never  ceased  to  run,  up  to  this  moment, 
"I  am  listening." 

"You  talked  to  me  some  time  ago,"  said  la  Peyrade, 
"about  marrying  a  girl  who  was  rich,  fully  of  age,  and 
slightly  hysterical,  as  you  were  pleased  to  put  it  euphe- 
mistically." 

"Well  done!"  cried  Cerizet.  "I  expected  this;  but 
you  've  been  some  time  coming  to  it." 

"In  offering  me  this  heiress,  what  did  you  have  in 
your  mind?"  asked  la  Peyrade. 

"Parbleuf  to  help  you  to  a  splendid  stroke  of  busi- 
ness. You  had  only  to  stoop  and  take  it.  I  was  formally 
charged  to  propose  it  to  you;  and,  as  there  wasn't 
any  brokerage,  I  should  have  relied  wholly  on  your 
generosity." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  385 

"But  you  are  not  the  only  person  who  was  commissioned 
to  make  me  that  offer.     A  woman  had  the  same  order." 

"A  woman!  "  cried  Cerizet  in  a  perfectly  natural  tone 
of  surprise.     "Not  that  I  know  of." 

"Yes,  a  foreigner,  young  and  pretty,  whom  you  must 
have  met  in  the  family  of  the  bride,  to  whom  she  seems 
to  be  ardently  devoted. " 

"Never,"  said  Cerizet,  "never  lias  there  been  the  slight- 
est question  of  a  woman  in  this  negotiation.  I  have 
every  reason  to  believe  that  I  am  exclusively  charged 
with  it." 

"What!  "  said  la  Peyrade,  fixing  upon  Cerizet  a  scruti- 
nizing eye,  "did  you  never  hear  of  the  Comtesse  Torna 
deGodollo?" 

"Never,  in  all  my  life;  this  is  the  first  time  I  ever 
heard  tliat  name." 

"Then,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "it  must  really  have  been 
another  match;  for  that  woman,  after  many  singular 
preliminaries,  too  long  to  explain  to  you,  made  me  a 
formal  offer  of  the  hand  of  a  young  woman  much  richer 
than  Mademoiselle  Colleville  —  " 

"And  hysterical?"  asked  Cerizet. 

"No,  she  did  not  embellish  the  proposal  with  that 
accessory;  but  there  's  another  detail  which  may  put  you 
on  the  track  of  her.  Madame  de  Godollo  exhorted  me, 
if  I  wished  to  push  the  matter,  to  go  and  see  a  certain 
Monsieur  du  Portail  —  " 

"Rue  Honore-Chevalier?  "  exclaimed  Cerizet,  quickly. 

"Precisely." 

"Then  it  is  the  same  marriage  which  is  offered  to  you 
through  two  different  mediums.  It  is  strange  I  was  not 
informed  of  this  collaboration!" 

"In  short,",  said  la  Peyrade,  "you  not  only  did  n't 
have  wind  of  the  countess's  intervention,  but  you  don't 
know  her,  and  you  can't  give  me  any  information  about 
her  —  is  that  so?  " 

25 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 

"At  present  I  can't,"  replied  Cerizet,  "but  I'll  find 
out  about  her;  for  the  whole  proceeding  is  rather  cavalier 
towards  me;  but  this  employment  of  two  agents  only 
shows  you  how  desirable  you  are  to  the  family." 

At  this  moment  the  door  of  the  room  was  opened  cau- 
tiously, a  woman's  head  appeared,  and  a  voice,  which 
was  instantly  recognized  by  la  Peyrade,  said,  address- 
ing the  copying-clerk :  — 

uAh!  excuse  me!  I  see  monsieur  is  busy.  Could  I 
say  a  word  to  monsieur  when  he  is  alone?" 

Cerizet,  who  had  an  eye  as  nimble  as  a  hand,  in- 
stantly noticed  a  certain  fact.  La  Peyrade,  who  was 
so  placed  as  to  be  plainly  seen  by  the  new-comer,  no 
sooner  heard  that  drawling,  honeyed  voice,  than  he 
turned  his  head  in  a  manner  to  conceal  his  features. 
Instead  therefore  of  being  roughly  sent  away,  as  usually 
happened  to  petitioners  who  addressed  the  most  surly 
of  official  clerks,  the  modest  visitor  heard  herself  greeted 
in  a  very  surprising  manner. 

"Come  in,  come  in,  Madame  Lambert,"  said  Cerizet; 
"you  won't  be  kept  waiting  long;  come  in." 

The  visitor  advanced,  and  then  came  face  to  face  with 
la  Peyrade. 

"Ah!  monsieur!"  cried  his  creditor,  whom  the  reader 
has  no  doubt  recognized,  "how  fortunate  I  am  to  meet 
monsieur!  I  have  been  several  times  to  his  office  to  ask 
if  he  had  had  time  to  attend  to  my  little  affair." 

"I  have  had  many  engagements  which  have  kept  me 
away  from  my  office  lately;  but  I  attended  to  that 
matter;  everything  has  been  done  all  right,  and  is  now 
in  the  hands  of  the  secretary." 

"Oh!  how  good  monsieur  is!  I  pray  God  to  bless 
him,"  said  the  pious  woman,  clasping  her  hands. 

"Bless  me!  do  you  have  "business  with  Madame 
Lambert?"  said  Cerizet;  "you  never  told  me  that.  Are 
you  Pere  Picot's  counsel?  " 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  387 

"No,  unfortunately,"  said  Madame  Lambert,  "my 
master  won't  take  any  counsel ;  he  is  so  self-willed,  so 
obstinate!  But,  my  good  monsieur,  what  I  came  to  ask 
is  whether  the  family  council  is  to  meet." 

"Of  course,"  said  Cerizet,  "and  not  later  than  to- 
morrow." 

"But  monsieur,  I  hear  those  gentlemen  of  the  Royal 
court  said  the  family  had  no  rights  —  " 

"Yes,  that's  so,"  said  the  clerk;  "the  lower  court 
and  the  Royal  court  have  both,  on  the  petition  of  the 
relatives,  rejected  their  demand  for  a  commission." 

"I  should  hope  so!"  said  the  woman;  "to  think  of 
making  him  out  a  lunatic!  him  so  full  of  wisdom  and 
learning! " 

"But  the  relations  don't  mean  to  give  up;  they  are 
going  to  try  the  matter  again  under  a  new  form,  and 
ask  for  the  appointment  of  a  judicial  counsel.  That 's 
what  the  family  council  meets  for  to-morrow;  and  I 
think,  this  time,  my  dear  Madame  Lambert,  your  old 
Picot  will  find  himself  restrained.  There  are  serious 
allegations,  I  can  tell  you.  It  was  all  very  well  to  take 
the  eggs,  but  to  pluck  the  hen  was  another  thing." 

"Is  it  possible  that  monsieur  can  suppose  —  "  began 
the  devote,  clasping  her  hands  under  her  chin. 

"I  suppose  nothing,"  said  Cerizet;  "I  am  not  the 
judge  in  this  affair.  But  the  relations  declare  that  you 
have  pocketed  considerable  sums,  and  made  investments 
about  which  they  demand  inquiry." 

"Oh!  heavens!"  said  the  woman,  casting  up  her 
eyes;  "they  can  inquire;  I  am  poor;  I  have  not  a  deed, 
nor  a  note,  nor  a  share;  not  the  slightest  security  of  any 
kind  in  my  possession." 

"I  dare  say  hot,"  said  Cerizet,  glancing  at  la  Peyrade 
out  of  the  corner  of  his  eye;  "but  there  are  always 
friends  to  take  care  of  such  things.  However,  that  is 
none   of   my    business;  every  one  must   settle  his  own 


388  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

affairs  in  his  own  way.  Now,  then,  say  what  you  have 
to  say,  distinctly." 

"I  came,  monsieur,"  she  replied,  "to  implore  you, 
monsieur,  to  implore  Monsieur  the  judge's  clerk,  to  speak 
iu  our  favor  to  Monsieur  the  justice-of-peace.  Monsieur 
the  vicar  of  Saint- Jacques  is  also  to  speak  to  him. 
That  poor  Monsieur  Picot!"  she  went  on,  weeping, 
"they'll  kill  him  if  they  continue  to  worry  him  in  this 
way." 

"I  sha'n't  conceal  from  you,"  said  Cerizet,  "that  the 
justice-of-peace  is  very  ill-disposed  to  your  cause.  You 
must  have  seen  that  the  other  day,  when  he  refused  to 
receive  you.  As  for  Monsieur  Dutocq  and  myself,  our 
assistance  won't  help  you  much;  and  besides,  my  good 
woman,  you  are  too  close-mouthed." 

"Monsieur  asked  me  if  I  had  laid  by  a  few  little  sav- 
ings; and  I  couldn't  tell  him  that  I  had,  be — because 
they  have  gone  to  keep  the  h — house  of  that  poor  Mon- 
sieur Pi — i — cot;  and  now  they  accuse  me  of  r — robbing 
him! " 

Madame  Lambert  sobbed. 

"My  opinion  is,"  said  Cerizet,  "that  you  are  making 
yourself  out  much  poorer  than  you  are;  and  if  friend 
Peyrade  here,  who  seems  to  be  more  in  your  confidence, 
had  n't  his  tongue  tied  by  the  rules  of  his  profession  —  " 

"I!  "  said  la  Peyrade,  hastily,  "I  don't  know  anything 
of  madame's  affairs.  She  asked  me  to  draw  up  a  peti- 
tion on  a  matter  in  which  there  was  nothing  judicial  or 
financial." 

"Ah!  that's  it,  is  it?"  said  Cerizet.  "Madame  had 
doubtless  gone  to  see  you  about  this  petition  the  day 
Dutocq  met  her  at  your  office,  the  morning  after  our 
dinner  at  the  Rocher  de  Cancale  —  when  you  were  such  a 
Roman,  you  know." 

Then,  without  seeming  to  attach  any  importance  to 
the  reminiscence,  he  added :  — 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  389 

"Well,  my  good  Madame  Lambert,  I  '11  ask  my  patron 
to  speak  to  the  justice-of-peace,  and,  if  I  get  a  chance, 
I'll  speak  to  him  myself;  but,  I  repeat  it,  he  is  very 
much  prejudiced  against  you." 

Madame  Lambert  retired  with  many  curtseys  and  pro- 
testations of  gratitude.  When  she  was  fairly  gone  la 
Peyrade  remarked :  — 

"You  don't  seem  to  believe  that  that  woman  came  to 
me  about  a  petition;  and  yet  nothing  was  ever  truer. 
She  is  thought  a  saint  in  the  street  she  lives  in,  and 
that  old  man  they  accuse  her  of  robbing  is  actually  kept 
alive  by  her  devotion,  so  I  'm  told.  Consequently,  the 
neighbors  have  put  it  into  the  good  woman's  head  to 
apply  for  the  Montyon  prize;  and  it  was  for  the  purpose 
of  putting  her.  claims  in  legal  shape  that  she  applied  to 
me." 

"Dear!  dear!  the  Montyon  prize!"  cried  Cerizet; 
"well,  that's  an  idea!  My  good  fellow,  we  ought  to 
have  cultivated  it  before, —  I,  especially,  as  banker  of 
the  poor,  and  you,  their  advocate.  As  for  this  client 
of  yours,  it  is  lucky  for  her  Monsieur  Picot's  relatives 
are  not  members  of  the  French  academy;  it  is  in  the 
correctional  police-court,  sixth  chamber,  where  they 
mean  to  give  her  the  reward  of  virtue.  However,  to 
come  back  to  what  we  were  talking  about.  I  tell  you 
that  after  all  your  tergiversations  you  had  better  settle 
down  peaceably;  and  I  advise  you,  as  your  countess 
did,  to  go  and  see  du  Portail." 

"Who  and  what  is  he?"  asked  la  Peyrade. 

"He  is  a  little  old  man,"  replied  Cerizet,  "as  shrewd 
as  a  weasel.  He  gives  me  the  idea  of  having  dealings 
with  the  devil.  Go  and  see  him!  Sight,  as  they  say, 
costs  nothing.'-' 

"Yes,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "perhaps  I  will;  but,  first  of 
all,  I  want  you  to  find  out  for  me  about  this  Comtesse 
deGodollo." 


390  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"What  do  you  care  about  her?  She  is  nothing  but  a 
supernumerary,  that  countess." 

"I  have  my  reasons,"  said  la  Peyrade;  "you  can 
certainly  get  some  information  about  her  in  three  days ; 
I  '11  come  and  see  you  then." 

"My  good  fellow,"  said  Ce'rizet,  "you  seem  to  me  to 
be  amusing  yourself  with  things  that  don't  pay;  you 
haven't  fallen  in  love  with  that  go-between,  have  you?" 

"Plague  take  him!"  thought  la  Peyrade;  "he  spies 
everything ;  there  's  no  hiding  anything  from  him !  No," 
he  said,  aloud,  "I  am  not  in  love;  on  the  contrary,  I  am 
very  cautious.  I  must  admit  that  this  marriage  with  a 
crazy  girl  does  n't  attract  me,  and  before  I  go  a  step  into 
it  I  want  to  know  where  I  put  my  feet.  These  crooked 
proceedings  are  not  reassuring,  and  as  so  many  influ- 
ences are  being  brought  to  bear,  I  choose  to  control  one 
by  another.  Therefore  don't  play  sly,  but  give  me  all 
the  information  you  get  into  your  pouch  about  Madame 
la  Comtesse  Torna  de  Godollo.  I  warn  you  I  know 
enough  to  test  the  veracity  of  your  report;  and  if  I 
see  you  are  trying  to  overreach  me  I  '11  break  off  short 
with  your  du  Portail." 

"Trying  to  overreach  you,  monseigneur! "  replied 
Ce'rizet,  in  the  tone  and  manner  of  Frederic  Lemaitre. 
"Who  would  dare  attempt  it?" 

As  he  pronounced  these  words  in  a  slightly  mocking 
tone,  Dutocq  appeared,  accompanied  by  his  little  clerk. 

"Bless  me!"  he  exclaimed,  seeing  la  Peyrade  and 
Ce'rizet  together;  "here's  the  trinity  reconstituted!  but 
the  object  of  the  alliance,  the  casus  foederis,  has  floated 
off.  What  have  you  done  to  that  good  Brigitte,  la 
Peyrade?     She  is  after  your  blood." 

"What  about  Thuillier?  "  asked  la  Peyrade. 

Moliere  was  reversed;  here  was  Tartuffe  inquiring 
for  Orgon. 

"Thuillier  began  by  not  being   very  hostile  to  you; 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  391 

but  it  now  seems  that  the  seizure  business  has  taken  a 
good  turn,  and  having  less  need  of  you  he  is  getting 
drawn  into  his  sister's  waters;  and  if  the  tendency 
continues,  I  have  n't  a  doubt  that  he  '11  soou  come  to 
think  you  "deserving  of  hanging." 

"Well,  I  'm  out  of  it  all,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "and  if 
anybody  ever  catches  me  in  such  a  mess  again !  —  "Well, 
adieu,  my  friends,"  he  added.  "And  you,  Cerizet,  as 
to  what  we  were  speaking  about,  activity,  safety,  and 
discretion!" 

When  la  Peyrade  reached  the  courtyard  of  the  muni- 
cipal building, he  was  accosted  by  Madame  Lambert,  who 
was  lying  in  wait  for  him. 

"Monsieur  would  n't  believe,  I  am  sure,"  she  said,  in 
a  deprecating  tone,  "the  villanous  things  that  Monsieur 
Cdrizet  said  about  me;  monsieur  knows  it  was  the  little 
property  I  received  from  my  uncle  in  England  that  I 
placed  in  his  hands." 

"Yes,  yes,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "but  you  must  understand 
that  with  all  these  rumors  set  about  by  your  master's 
relatives  the  prize  of  virtue  is  desperately  endangered." 

"If  it  is  God's  will  that  I  am  not  to  have  it —  " 

"You  ought  also  to  understand  how  important  it  is 
for  your  interests  to  keep  secret  the  other  service  which 
I  did  for  you.  At  the  first  appearance  of  any  indiscre- 
tion on  your  part  that  money,  as  I  told  you,  will  be 
peremptorily  returned  to  you." 

"Oh!  monsieur  may  be  easy  about  that." 

"Very  well;  then  good-bye  to  you,  my  dear,"  said  la 
Peyrade,  in  a  friendly  tone. 

As  he  turned  to  leave  her,  a  nasal  voice  was  heard 
from  a  window  on  the  staircase. 

"Madame  Lambert!"  cried  Cerizet,  who,  suspecting 
the  colloquy,  had  gone  to  the  staircase  window  to  make 
sure  of  it.  "Madame  Lambert!  Monsieur  Dutocq  has 
returned;  you  may  come  up  and  see  him,  if  you  like." 


392  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Impossible  for  la  Peyrade  to  prevent  the  conference, 
although  he  knew  the  secret  of  that  twenty-five  thousand 
francs  ran  the  greatest  danger. 

"Certainly,"  he  said  to  himself  as  he  walked  away, 
"I'm  in  a  run  of  ill-luck;  and  I  don't  know  where  it 
will  end." 

In  Brigitte's  nature  there  was  such  an  all-devouring 
instinct  of  domination,  that  it  was  without  regret,  and, 
we  may  even  say,  with  a  sort  of  secret  joy  that  she  saw 
the  disappearance  of  Madame  de  Godollo.  That  woman, 
she  felt,  had  a  crushing  superiority  over  her;  and  this, 
while  it  had  given  a  higher  order  to  the  Thuillier  estab- 
lishment, made  her  ill  at  ease.  When  therefore  the 
separation  took  place,  which  was  done,  let  us  here  say, 
on  good  terms,  and  under  fair  and  honorable  pretexts, 
Mademoiselle  Thuillier  breathed  more  freely.  She  felt 
like  those  kings  long  swayed  by  imperious  and  necessary 
ministers,  who  celebrate  within  their  hearts  the  day 
when  death  delivers  them  from  a  master  whose  services 
and  rival  influence  they  impatiently  endured. 

Thuillier  was  not  far  from  having  the  same  sentiment 
about  la  Peyrade.  But  Madame  de  Godollo  was  only 
the  elegance,  whereas  la  Peyrade  was  the  utility  of  the 
house  they  had  now  simultaneously  abandoned;  and 
after  the  lapse  of  a  few  days,  a  terrible  need  of  Theodose 
made  itself  felt  in  the  literary  and  political  existence  of 
his  dear,  good  friend.  The  municipal  councillor  found 
himself  suddenly  appointed  to  draft  an  important  report. 
He  was  unable  to  decline  the  task,  saddled  as  he  was 
with  the  reputation,  derived  from  his  pamphlet,  of  being 
a  man  of  letters  and  an  able  writer;  therefore,  in  pres- 
ence of  the  perilous  honor  conferred  upon  him  by  his 
colleagues  of  the  general  Council,  he  sat  down  terrified 
by  his  solitude  and  his  insufficiency. 

In  vain  did  he  lock  himself  into  his  study,  gorge  him- 
self with  black  coffee,  mend  innumerable  pens,  and  write 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  393 

a  scoi-e  of  times  at  the  head  of  his  paper  (which  he  was 
careful  to  cut  of  the  exact  dimensions  of  that  used  by  la 
Peyrade)  the  solemn  words:  Beport  to  the  Members  of 
the  Municipal  Council  of  the  City  of  Faris,  followed, 
on  a  line  by  itself,  by  a  magnificent  Messieurs  —  noth- 
ing came  of  it!  He  was  fain  to  issue  furious  from  his 
study,  complaining  of  the  horrible  household  racket 
which  "cut  the  thread  of  his  ideas:"  though  really  no 
greater  noise  than  the  closing  of  a  door  or  the  opening 
of  a  closet  or  the  moving  of  a  chair  had  made  itself 
heard.  All  this,  however,  did  not  help  the  advance- 
ment of  the  work,  which  remained,  as  before  —  simply 
begun. 

Most  fortunately,  it  happened  that  Rabourdin,  wanting 
to  make  some  change  in  his  apartment,  came,  as  was 
proper,  to  submit  his  plan  to  the  owner  of  the  house. 
Thuillier  granted  cordially  the  request  that  was  made  to 
him,  and  then  discoursed  to  his  tenant  about  the  report 
with  which  he  was  charged, —  being  desirous,  he  said,  to 
obtain  his  ideas  on  the  subject.- 

Rabourdin,  to  whom  no  administrative  question  was 
foreign,  very  readily  threw  upon  the  subject  a  number  of 
very  clear  and  lucid  ideas.  He  was  one  of  those  men  to 
whom  the  quality  of  the  intellect  to  which  they  address 
themselves  is  more  or  less  indifferent;  a  fool,  or  a  man 
of  talent  who  will  listen  to  them,  serves  equally  well  to 
think  aloud  to,  and  they  are,  as  a  stimulant,  about  the 
same  thing.  After  Rabourdin  had  said  his  say,  he  ob- 
served that  Thuillier  had  not  understood  him;  but  he  had 
listened  to  himself  with  pleasure,  and  he  was,  moreover, 
grateful  for  the  attention,  obtuse  as  it  was,  of  his 
hearer,  and  also  for  the  kindliness  of  the  landlord  in 
receiving  his' request. 

"I  must  have  among  my  papers,"  he  said  as  he  went 
away,  "something  on  this  subject;  I  will  look  it  up  and 
send  it  to  you." 


394  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Accordingly,  that  same  evening  Thnillier  received  a 
voluminous  manuscript;  and  he  spent  the  entire  night 
in  delving  into  that  precious  repository  of  ideas,  from 
which  he  extracted  enough  to  make  a  really  remarkable 
report,  clumsily  as  the  pillage  was  managed.  When 
read  before  the  council  it  obtained  a  very  great  success, 
and  Thuillier  returned  home  radiant  and  much  elated  by 
the  congratulations  he  had  received.  From  that  moment 
—  a  moment  that  was  marked  in  his  life,  for  even  to 
advanced  old  age  he  still  talked  of  the  "report  he  had 
had  the  honor  of  making  to  the  Council-general  of  the 
Seine"  —  la  Peyrade  went  down  considerably  in  his  esti- 
mation ;  he  felt  then  that  he  could  do  very  well  without 
the  barrister,  and  this  thought  of  emancipation  was 
strengthened  by  another  happiness  which  came  to  him 
at  almost  the  same  time. 

A  parliamentary  crisis  was  imminent, —  a  fact  that 
caused  the  ministry  to  think  about  depriving  its  adver- 
saries of  a  theme  of  opposition  which  always  has  great 
influence  on  public  opinion.  It  resolved  therefore  to 
relax  its  rigor,  which  of  late  had  been  much  increased 
against  the  press.  Being  included  in  this  species  of 
hypocritical  amnesty,  Thuillier  received  one  morning  a 
letter  from  the  barrister  whom  he  had  chosen  in  place  of 
la  Peyrade.  This  letter  announced  that  the  Council  of 
State  had  dismissed  the  complaint,  and  ordered  the 
release  of  the  pamphlet. 

Then  Dutocq's  prediction  was  realized.  That  weight 
the  less  within  his  bosom,  Thuillier  took  a  swing  toward 
insolence;  he  chorused  Brigitte,  and  came  at  last  to 
speak  of  la  Peyrade  as  a  sort  of  adventurer  whom  he 
had  fed  and  clothed,  a  tricky  fellow  who  had  extracted 
much  money  from  him,  and  had  finally  behaved  with 
such  ingratitude  that  he  was  thankful  not  to  count  him 
any  longer  among  his  friends.  Orgon,  in  short,  was  in 
full  revolt,  and  like  Dorine,  he  was  ready  to  cry  out: 


The  Lester  Bourgeoisie.  395 

"A  beggar!  who,  when  he  came,  had  neither  shoes  nor 
coat  worth  a  brass  farthing." 

Cerizet,  to  whom  these  indignities  were  reported  by 
Dutocq,  would  gladly  have  served  them  up  hot  to  la 
Peyrade;  but  the  interview  in  which  the  copying  clerk 
was  to  furnish  information  about  Madame  de  Godollo 
did  not  take  place  at  the  time  fixed.  La  Peyrade  made 
his  own  discoveries  in  this  wise: 

Pursued  by  the  thought  of  the  beautiful  Hungarian, 
and  awaiting,  or  rather  not  awaiting  the  result  of 
Cerizet's  inquiry,  he  scoured  Paris  in  every  direction, 
and  might  have  been  seen,  like  the  idlest  of  loungers,  in 
the  most  frequented  places,  his  heart  telling  him  that 
sooner  or  later  he  must  meet  the  object  of  his  ardent 
search. 

One  evening  —  it  was  towards  the  middle  of  October 
—  the  autumn,  as  frequently  happens  in  Paris,  was  mag- 
nificent, and  along  the  boulevards,  where  the  Provencal 
was  airing  his  love  and  his  melancholy,  the  out-door  life 
and  gayety  were  as  animated  as  in  summer.  On  the 
boulevard  des  Italiens,  formerly  known  as  the  boulevard 
de  Gand,  as  he  lounged  past  the  long  line  of  chairs 
before  the  Cafe*  de  Paris,  where,  mingled  with  a  few 
women  of  the  Chaussee  d'Antin  accompanied  by  their 
husbands  and  children,  may  be  seen  toward  evening  a 
cordon  of  nocturnal  beauties  waiting  only  a  gloved  hand 
to  gather  them,  la  Peyrade' s  heart  received  a  cruel  shock. 
From  afar,  he  thought  he  saw  his  adored  countess. 

She  was  alone,  in  a  dazzling  toilet  scarcely  author- 
ized by  the  place  and  her  isolation ;  before  her,  mounted 
on  a  chair,  trembled  a  tiny  lap-dog,  which  she  stroked 
from  time  to  time  with  her  beautiful  hands.  After  con- 
vincing himself  that  he  was  not  mistaken,  la  Peyrade 
was  about  to  dart  upon  that  celestial  vision,  when  he 
was  forestalled  by  a  dandy  of  the  most  triumphant  type. 
Without  throwing  aside  his  cigar,  without  even  touching 


396  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

his  hat,  this  handsome  young  man  began  to  converse 
with  the  barrister's  ideal;  but  when  she  saw  la  Peyrade 
making  towards  her  the  siren  must  have  felt  afraid,  for 
she  rose  quickly,  and  taking  the  arm  of  the  man  who 
was  talking  to  her,  she  said  aloud :  — 

"Is  your  carriage  here,  Emile?  Mabille  closes  to- 
night, and  I  should  like  to  go  there." 

The  name  of  that  disreputable  place  thus  thrown  in 
the  face  of  the  unhappy  barrister,  was  a  charity,  for  it 
saved  him  from  a  foolish  action,  that  of  addressing,  on 
the  arm  of  the  man  who  had  suddenly  made  himself  her 
cavalier,  the  unworthy  creature  of  whom  he  was  thinking 
a  few  seconds  earlier  with  so  much  tenderness. 

"She  is  not  worth  insulting,"  he  said  to  himself. 

But,  as  lovers  are  beings  who  will  not  allow  their 
foothold  to  be  taken  from  them  easily,  the  Provencal 
was  neither  convinced  nor  resigned  as  yet.  Not  far  from 
the  place  which  his  countess  had  left,  sat  another  woman, 
also  alone;  but  this  one  was  ripe  in  years,  with  feathers 
on  her  head,  and  beneath  the  folds  of  a  cashmere  shawl 
she  concealed  the  plaintive  remains  of  tarnished  elegance 
and  long  past  luxury.  There  was  nothing  imposing 
about  this  sight,  nor  did  it  command  respect,  but  the 
contrary.  La  Peyrade  went  up  to  the  woman  without 
ceremony  and  addressed  her. 

"Madame,"  he  said,  "do  you  know  that  woman  who 
has  just  gone  away  on  the  arm  of  a  gentleman? " 

"Certainly,  monsieur;  I  know  nearly  all  the  women 
who  come  here." 

"And  her  name  is?  —  " 

"Madame  Komorn." 

"Is  she  as  impregnable  as  the  fortress  of  that  name?" 

Our  readers  will  doubtless  remember  that  at  the  time 
of  the  insurrection  in  Hungary  our  ears  were  battered  by 
the  press  and  by  novelists  about  the  famous  citadel  of 
Komorn ;  and  la  Peyrade  knew  that  by  assuming  a  tone 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  897 

of  indifference  or  flippancy  he  was  more  likely  to  succeed 
in  his  inquiries. 

"Has  monsieur  any  idea  of  making  her  acquaintance?  " 

"I  don't  know,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  "but  she  is  a 
woman  who  makes  people  think  of  her.". 

"And  a  very  dangerous  woman,  monsieur,"  added  his 
companion;  "a  fearful  spendthrift,  but  with  no  inclina- 
tion to  return  generously  what  is  done  for  her.  I  can 
speak  knowingly  of  that;  when  she  first  arrived  here 
from  Berlin,  six  months  ago,  she  was  very  warmly 
recommended   to   me." 

"  Ah!  "  exclaimed  la  Peyrade. 

"Yes,  at  that  time  I  had  in  the  environs  of  Ville 
d'Avray  a  very  beautiful  place,  with  park  and  coverts 
and  a  stream  for  fishing;  but  as  I  was  alone  I  found  it 
dull,  and  several  of  these  ladies  and  gentlemen  said  to 
me,  'Madame  Louchard,  why  don't  you  organize  parties 
in  the  style  of  picnics?  '  " 

"Madame  Louchard!"  repeated  la  Peyrade,  "are  you 
any  relation  to  Monsieur  Louchard  of  the  commercial 
police?  " 

"His  wife,  monsieur,  but  legally  separated  from  him. 
A  horrid  man  who  wants  me  to  go  back  to  him ;  but  I, 
though  I'm  ready  to  forgive  most  things,  I  can't  forgive 
a  want  of  respect;  just  imagine  that  he  dared  to  raise 
his  hand  against  me !  " 

"Well,"  said  la  Peyrade,  trying  to  bring  her  back  to 
the  matter  in  hand ;  "you  organized  those  picnics,  and 
Madame  de  Godo  —  I  mean  Madame  Komorn  —  " 

"Was  one  of  my  first  lodgers.  It  was  there  she  made 
acquaintance  with  an  Italian,  a  handsome  man,  and 
rich,  a  political  refugee,  but  one  of  the  lofty  kind.  You 
understand  it  did  n't  suit  my  purpose  to  have  intrigues 
going  on  in  my  house ;  still  the  man  was  so  lovable,  and 
so  unhappy  because  he  could  n't  make  Madame  Komorn 
like  him,  that  at  last  I  took  an  interest  in  this  particular 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

love  affair;  which  produced  a  pot  of  money  for  madame, 
for  she  managed  to  get  immense  sums  out  of  that  Italian. 
Well,  would  you  believe  that  when  —  being  just  then  in 
great  need  —  I  asked  her  to  assist  me  with  a  trifling 
little  sum,  she  refused  me  point-blank,  and  left  my 
house,  taking  her  lover  with  her,  who,  poor  man,  can't 
be  thankful  for  the  acquaintance  now." 

"Why  not?  What  happened  to  hiin?"  asked  la 
Peyrade. 

"It  happened  to  him  that  this  serpent  knows  every 
language  in  Europe;  she  is  witty  and  clever  to  the  tips 
of  her  fingers,  but  more  manoeuvring  than  either;  so, 
being,  as  it  appears,  in  close  relations  to  the  police,  she 
gave  the  government  a  lot  of  papers  the  Italian  left 
about  carelessly,  on  which  they  expelled  him  from 
France." 

"Well,  after  his  departure,  Madame  Komorn  —  " 

"Since  then,  she  has  had  a  good  many  adventures  and 
upset  several  fortunes,  and  I  thought  she  had  left  Paris. 
For  the  last  two  months  she  was  nowhere  to  be  seen, 
but  three  days  ago  she  reappeared,  more  brilliant  than 
ever.  My  advice  to  monsieur  is  not  to  trust  himself  in 
that  direction ;  and  yet,  monsieur  looks  to  me  a  South- 
erner, and  Southerners  have  passions ;  perhaps  what  I 
have  told  him  will  only  serve  to  spur  them  up.  How- 
ever, being  warned,  there  's  not  so  much  danger,  and  she 
is  a  most  fascinating  creature  —  oh!  very  fascinating. 
She  used  to  love  me  very  much,  though  we  parted  such 
ill-friends;  and  just  now,  seeing  me  here,  she  came  over 
and  asked  my  address,  and  said  she  should  come  and  see 
me." 

"Well,  madame,  I'll  think  about  it,"  said  la  Peyrade, 
rising  and  bowing  to  her. 

The  bow  was  returned  with  extreme  coldness;  his 
abrupt  departure  did  not  show  him  to  be  a  man  of 
serious  intentions. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  399 

It  might  be  supposed  from  the  lively  manner  in  which 
la  Peyrade  made  these  inquiries  that  his  cure  though 
sudden  was  complete;  but  this  surface  of  indifference 
and  cool  self-possession  was  only  the  stillness  of  the 
atmosphere  that  precedes  a  storm.  On  leaving  Madame 
Louchard,  la  Peyrade  flung  himself  into  a  street-cab  and 
there  gave  way  to  a  passion  of  tears  like  that  Madame 
Colleville  had  witnessed  on  the  day  he  believed  that 
Cerizet  had  got  the  better  of  him  in  the  sale  of  the 
house. 

What  was  his  position  now?  The  investment  of  the 
Thuilliers,  prepared  with  so  much  care,  all  useless; 
Flavie  well  avenged  for  the  odious  comedy  he  had 
played  with  her;  his  affairs  in  a  worse  state  than  they 
were  when  Cerizet  and  Dutocq  had  sent  him,  like  a 
devouring  wolf,  into  the  sheepfold  from  which  he  had 
allowed  the  stupid  sheep  to  drive  him;  his  heart  full 
of  revengeful  projects  against  the  woman  who  had  so 
easily  got  the  better  of  what  he  thought  his  cleverness; 
and  the  memory,  still  vivid,  of  the  seductions  to  which  he 
had  succumbed, —  such  were  the  thoughts  and  emotions 
of  his  sleepless  night,  sleepless  except  for  moments 
shaken  by  agitated  dreams. 

The  next  day  la  Peyrade  could  think  no  more ;  he  was 
a  prey  to  fever,  the  violence  of  which  became  sufficiently 
alarming  for  the  physician  who  attended  him  to  take  all 
precautions  against  the  symptoms  now  appearing  of 
brain  fever:  bleeding,  cupping,  leeches,  and  ice  to  his 
head;  these  were  the  agreeable  finale  of  his  dream  of 
love.  We  must  hasten  to  add,  however,  that  this  violent 
crisis  in  the  physical  led  to  a  perfect  cure  of  the  mental 
being.  The  barrister  came  out  of  his  illness  with  no 
other  sentiment  than  cold  contempt  for  the  treacherous 
Hungarian,  a  sentiment  which  did  not  even  rise  to  a 
desire  for  vengeance. 


400  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


IX. 

GIVE,  AND    TAKE. 

Once  more  afoot,  and  reckoning  with  bis  future,  on 
which  he  had  lost  so  much  ground,  la  Peyrade  asked  him- 
self if  he  had  not  better  try  to  renew  his  relations  with  the 
Thuilliers,  or  whether  he  should  be  compelled  to  fall  back 
on  the  rich  crazy  woman  who  had  bullion  where  others 
have  brains.  But  everything  that  reminded  him  of  his 
disastrous  campaign  was  repulsive  to  him ;  besides,  what 
safety  was  there  in  dealing  with  this  du  Portail,  a  man 
who  could  use  such  instruments  for  his  means  of  action? 

Great  commotions  of  the  soul  are  like  those  storms 
which  purify  the  atmosphere;  they  induce  reflection, 
they  counsel  good  and  strong  resolutions.  La  Peyrade, 
as  the  result  of  the  cruel  disappointment  he  had  just 
endured,  examined  his  own  'soul.  He  asked  himself 
what  sort  of  existence  was  this,  of  base  and  ignoble 
intrigue,  which  he  had  led  for  the  last  year?  Was  there 
for  him  no  better,  no  nobler  use  to  make  of  the  faculties 
he  felt  within  him  ?  The  bar  was  open  to  him  as  to 
others ;  that  was  a  broad,  straight  path  which  could  lead 
him  to  all  the  satisfactions  of  legitimate  ambition.  Like 
Figaro,  who  displayed  more  science  and  calculation  in 
merely  getting  a  living  than  statesmen  had  shown  in  gov- 
erning Spain  for  a  hundred  years,  he,  la  Peyrade,  in  order 
to  install  and  maintain  himself  in  the  Thuillier  household 
and  marry  the  daughter  of  a  clarionet  and  a  smirched 
coquette,  had  spent  more  mind,  more  art,  and  —  it 
should  also  be  said,  because  in  a  corrupt  society  it  is  an 
element  that  must  be  reckoned  —  more  dishonesty  than 
was  needed  to  advance  him  in  some  fine  career. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  401 

"Enough  of  such  connections  as  Dutocq  and  Cdrizet," 
he  said  to  himself;  "enough  of  the  nauseating  atmos- 
phere of  the  Minards  and  Phellions  and  Collevilles  and 
Barniols  and  all  the  rest  of  them.  I  '11  shake  off  this 
province  intra  muros,  a  thousand  times  more  absurd  and 
petty  than  the  true  provinces ;  they  at  least,  side  by  side 
with  their  pettiness,  have  habits  and  customs  that  are 
characteristic,  a  sui  generis  dignity;  they  are  frankly 
what  they  are,  the  antipodes  of  Parisian  life ;  this  other 
is  but  a  parody  of  it.     I  will  fling  myself  upon  Paris." 

In  consequence  of  these  reflections,  la  Peyrade  went 
to  see  two  or  three  barristers  who  had  offered  to  intro- 
duce him  at  the  Palais  in  secondary  cases.  He  accepted 
those  that  presented  themselves  at  once,  and  three  weeks 
after  his  rupture  with  the  Thuilliers  he  was  no  longer 
the  "advocate  of  the  poor,"  but  a  barrister  pleading 
before  the  Royal  court. 

He  had  already  pleaded  several  cases  successfully  when 
he  received,  one  morning,  a  letter  which  greatly  dis- 
turbed him.  The  president  of  the  order  of  barristers 
requested  him  to  come  to  his  office  at  the  Palais  in  the 
course  of  the  day,  as  he  had  something  of  importance  to 
say  to  him.  La  Peyrade  instantly  thought  of  the  trans- 
action relating  to  the  purchase  of  the  house  on  the 
boulevard  de  la  Madeleine;  it  must  have  come,  he 
thought,  to  the  ears  of  the  Council  of  Discipline;  if 
so  he  was  accountable  to  that  tribunal  and  he  knew  its 
severity. 

Now  this  du  Portail,  whom  he  had  uever  yet  been  to 
see,  in  spite  of  his  conditional  promise  to  Cerizet,  was 
likely  to  have  heard  the  whole  story  of  that  transaction 
from  Cerizet  himself.  Evidently  all  means  were  thought 
good  by  that  man,  judging  by  the  use  he  had  made  of 
the  Hungarian  woman.  In  his  savage  determination  to 
bring  about  the  marriage  with  the  crazy  girl,  had  this 
virulent  old  man  denounced  him?     On  seeing  him  coura- 

26 


402  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

geously  and  with  some  appearance  of  success  entering  a 
career  in  which  he  might  find  fame  and  independence, 
had  his  persecutor  taken  a  step  to  make  that  career 
impossible?  Certainly  there  was  enough  likelihood  in 
this  suggestion  to  make  the  barrister  wait  in  cruel 
anxiety  for  the  hour  when  he  might  learn  the  true  uature 
of  the  alarming  summons. 

While  breakfasting  rather  meagrely,  his  mind  full  of 
these  painful  conjectures,  Madame  Coffinet,  who  had  the 
honor  to  take  charge  of  his  housekeeping,  came  up  to 
ask  if  he  would  see  Monsieur  Etienne  Lousteau.  [See 
"The  Great  Man  of  the  Provinces  in  Paris."] 

Etienne  Lousteau !  la  Peyrade  bad  an  idea  that  he  had 
heard  the  name  before. 

"Show  him  into  my  office,"  he  said  to  the  portress. 

A  moment  later  he  met  his  visitor,  whose  face  did  not 
seem  utterly  unknown  to  him. 

"Monsieur,"  said  the  new-comer,  "I  had  the  honor  of 
breakfasting  with  you  not  long  ago  at  Vefour's;  I  was 
invited  to  that  meeting,  afterwards  rather  disturbed,  by 
Monsieur  Thuillier." 

"Ah,  very  good!  "  said  the  barrister,  offering  a  chair; 
"you  are  attached  to  the  staff  of  a  newspaper?  " 

"Editor-in-chief  of  the  '  ^Icho  de  la  Bievre,'  and  it  is 
on  the  subject  of  that  paper  that  I  have  now  called  to 
see  you.     You  know  what  has  happened?" 

"No,"  said  la  Peyrade. 

"Is  it  possible  you  are  not  aware  that  the  ministry 
met  with  terrible  defeat  last  night?  But  instead  of 
resigning,  as  every  one  expected,  they  have  dissolved 
the  Chamber  and  appeal  to  the  people." 

"I  knew  nothing  of  all  that,"  said  la  Peyrade.  "I 
have  not  read  the  morning  papers." 

"  So,"  continued  Lousteau,  "all  parliamentary  ambi- 
tions will  take  the  field,  and,  if  I  am  well  informed, 
Monsieur   Thuillier,    already   member   of    the   Council- 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  403 

general,  intends  to  present  himself  as  candidate  for  elec- 
tion in  the  12th  arrondissement." 

"Yes,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "that  is  likely  to  be  his 
intention." 

"Well,  monsieur,  I  desire  to  place  at  his  disposition 
an  instrument  the  value  of  which  I  am  confident  you  will 
not  underestimate.  The  'Echo  de  la  Bievre,'  a  special- 
ist paper,  can  have  a  decisive  influence  on  the  election 
in  that  quarter." 

"And  you  would  be  disposed,"  asked  la  Peyrade, 
"to  make  that  paper  support  Monsieur  Thuillier's 
candidacy  ?  " 

"Better  than  that,"  replied  Lousteau.  "I  have  come 
to  propose  to  Monsieur  Thuillier  that  he  purchase  the 
paper  itself.  Once  the  proprietor  of  it  he  can  use  it  as 
he  pleases." 

"But  in  the  first  place,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "what  is  the 
present  condition  of  the  enterprise  ?  In  its  character  as 
a  specialist  journal  —  as  you  called  it  just  now  —  it  is 
a  sheet  I  have  seldom  met  with;  in  fact,  it  would  be 
entirely  unknown  to  me  were  it  not  for  the  remarkable 
article  you  were  so  good  as  to  devote  to  Thuillier's 
defence  at  the  time  his  pamphlet  was  seized." 

^tienne  Lousteau  bowed  his  thanks,  and  then  said: 

"The  position  of  the  paper  is  excellent;  we  can  give 
it  to  you  on  easy  terms,  for  we  were  intending  shortly  to 
stop  the  publication." 

"That  is  strange  for  a  prosperous  journal." 

"On  the  contrary,  it  happens  to  be  quite  natural. 
The  founders,  who  were  all  representatives  of  the  great 
leather  interest,  started  this  paper  for  a  special  object. 
That  object  has  been  attained.  The  '  Echo  de  la 
Bievre  '  has  therefore  become  an  effect  without  a  cause. 
In  such  a  case,  stockholders  who  don't  like  the  tail  end 
of  matters,  and  are  not  eager  after  small  profits,  very 
naturally  prefer  to  sell  out." 


404  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"But,"  asked  la  Peyrade,  "does  the  paper  pay  its 
costs?" 

"That,"  replied  Lousteau,  "is  a  point  we  did  not  con- 
sider; we  were  not  very  anxious  to  have  subscribers; 
the  mainspring  of  the  whole  affair  was  direct  and  imme- 
diate action  on  the  ministry  of  commerce  to  obtain  a 
higher  duty  on  the  introduction  of  foreign  leathers. 
You  understand  that  outside  of  the  tannery  circle,  this 
interest  was  not  very  exciting  to  the  general  reader." 

"I  should  have  thought,  however,"  persisted  la  Peyrade, 
"that  a  newspaper,  however  circumscribed  its  action, 
would  be  a  lever  which  depended  for  its  force  on  the 
number  of  its  subscribers." 

"Not  for  journals  which  aim  for  a  single  definite 
thing,"  replied  Lousteau,  dogmatically.  "In  that  case, 
subscribers  are,  on  the  contrary,  an  embarrassment,  for 
you  have  to  please  and  amuse  them;  and  in  so  doing,  the 
real  object  has  to  be  neglected.  A  newspaper  which  has 
a  definite  and  circumscribed  object  ought  to  be  like  the 
stroke  of  that  pendulum  which,  striking  steadily  on  one 
spot,  fires  at  a  given  hour  the  cannon  of  the  Palais- 
Royal." 

"At  any  rate,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "what  price  do  you 
put  upon  a  publication  which  has  no  subscribers,  does  not 
pay  its  expenses,  and  has  until  now  been  devoted  to  a 
purpose  totally  different  from  that  you  propose  for  it?  " 

"Before  answering,"  returned  Lousteau,  "I  shall  ask 
you  another  question.  Have  you  any  intention  of  buy- 
ing it?" 

"That  's  according  to  circumstances,"  replied  la 
Peyrade.  "Of  course  I  must  see  Thuillier;  but  I  may 
here  remark  to  you  that  he  knows  absolutely  nothing 
about  newspaper  business.  With  his  rather  bourgeois 
ideas,  the  ownership  of  a  newspaper  will  seem  to  him  a 
ruinous  speculation.  Therefore,  if,  in  addition  to  an 
idea  that  will  scare  him,  you  suggest  an  alarming  price, 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  405 

it  is  useless  for  me  to  speak  to  him.  I  am  certain  he 
would  never  go  into  the  affair. " 

"No,"  replied  Lousteau.  "I  told  you  we  should  be 
reasonable;  these  gentlemen  have  left  the  whole  matter 
in  my  hands.  Only,  I  beg  to  remark  that  we  have  had 
propositions  from  other  parties,  and  in  giving  Monsieur 
Thuillier  this  option,  we  intended  to  pay  him  a  particu- 
lar courtesy.     When  can  I  have  your  answer  ?  " 

"To-morrow,  I  think;  shall  I  have  the  honor  of  seeing 
you  at  your  own  house,  or  at  the  office  of  the  journal?  " 

"No,"  said  Lousteau,  "to-morrow  I  will  come  here,  at 
the  same  hour,  if  that  is  convenient  to  you." 

"  Perfectly,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  bowing  out  his  visitor, 
whom  he  was  inclined  to  think  more  consequential  than 
able. 

By  the  manner  in  which  the  barrister  had  received  the 
proposition  to  become  an  intermediary  to  Thuillier,  the 
reader  must  have  seen  that  a  rapid  revolution  had  taken 
place  in  his  ideas.  Even  if  he  had  not  received  that 
extremely  disquieting  letter  from  the  president  of  the 
order  of  barristers,  the  new  situation  in  which  Thuillier 
would  be  placed  if  elected  to  the  Chamber  gave  him 
enough  to  think  about.  Evidently  his  dear  good  friend 
would  have  to  come  back  to  him,  and  Thuillier's  eager- 
ness for  election  would  deliver  him  over,  bound  hand 
and  foot.  Was  it  not  the  right  moment  to  attempt  to 
renew  his  marriage  with  Celeste?  Far  from  being  an 
obstacle  to  the  good  resolutions  inspired  by  his  amorous 
disappointment  and  his  incipent  brain  fever,  such  a 
finale  would  insure  their  continuance  and  success.  More- 
over, if  he  received,  as  he  feared,  one  of  those  censures 
which  would  ruin  his  dawning  prospects  at  the  bar,  it 
was  with  the  Thuilliers,  the  accomplices  and  beneficia- 
ries of  the  cause  of  his  fall,  that  his  instinct  led  him  to 
claim  an  asylum. 

With  these  thoughts  stirring  in  his  mind  la  Peyrade 


406  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

obeyed  the  summons  and  went  to  see  the  president  of 
the  order  of  barristers. 

He  was  not  mistaken ;  a  very  circumstantial  statement 
of  his  whole  proceeding  in  the  matter  of  the  house  had 
been  laid  before  his  brethren  of  the  bar;  and  the  highest 
dignitary  of  the  order,  after  stating  that  an  anonymous 
denunciation  ought  always  to  be  received  with  great  dis- 
trust, told  him  that  he  was  ready  to  receive  and  welcome 
an  explanation.  La  Peyrade  dared  not  intrench  himself 
in  absolute  denial ;  the  hand  from  which  he  believed  the 
blow  had  come  seemed  to  him  too  resolute  and  too  able 
not  to  hold  the  proofs  as  well.  But,  while  admitting  the 
facts  in  general,  he  endeavored  to  give  them  an  accept- 
able coloring.  In  this  he  saw  that  he  had  failed,  when 
the  president  said  to  him:  — 

"After  the  vacation  which  is  now  beginning  I  shall 
report  to  the  Council  of  the  order  the  charges  made 
against  you,  and  the  statements  by  which  you  have 
defended  yourself.  The  Council  alone  has  the  right  to 
decide  on  a  matter  of  such  importance." 

Thus  dismissed,  la  Peyrade  felt  that  his  whole  future 
at  the  bar  was  imperilled ;  but  at  least  he  had  a  respite, 
and  in  case  of  condemnation  a  new  project  on  which  to 
rest  his  head.  Accordingly,  he  put  on  his  gown,  which 
he  had  never  worn  till  now,  and  went  to  the  fifth  court- 
room, where  he  was  employed  upon  a  case. 

As  he  left  the  court-room,  carrying  one  of  those  bun- 
dles of  legal  papers  held  together  by  a  strip  of  cotton 
which,  being  too  voluminous  to  hold  under  the  arm,  are 
carried  by  the  hand  and  the  forearm  pressed  against  the 
chest,  la  Peyrade  began  to  pace  about  the  Salle  des 
Pas  perdus  with  that  harassed  look  of  business  which 
denotes  a  lawyer  overwhelmed  with  work.  Whether  he 
had  really  excited  himself  in  pleading,  or  whether  he 
was  pretending  to  be  exhausted  to  prove  that  his  gown 
was  not  a  dignity  for  show,  as  it  was  with  many  of  his 
legal  brethren,  but  an  armor  buckled  on  for  the  fight,  it 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  407 

is  certain  that,  handkerchief  in  hand,  he  was  mopping  his 
forehead  as  he  walked,  when,  in  the  distance,  he  spied 
Thuillier,  who  had  evidently  just  caught  sight  of  him, 
and  was  beginning  on  his  side  to  manoeuvre. 

La  Peyrade  was  not  surprised  by  the  encounter.  On 
leaving  home  he  had  told  Madame  Coffinet  he  was  going 
to  the  Palais,  and  should  be  there  till  three  o'clock,  and 
she  might  send  to  him  any  persons  who  called  on  busi- 
ness. Not  wishing  to  let  Thuillier  accost  him  too  easily, 
he  turned  abruptly,  as  if  some  thought  had  changed  his 
purpose,  and  went  and  seated  himself  on  one  of  the 
benches  which  surround  the  walls  of  that  great  ante- 
chamber of  Justice.  There  he  undid  his  bundle,  took 
out  a  paper,  and  buried  himself  in  it  with  the  air  of  a 
man  who  had  not  had  time  to  examine  in  his  study  a 
case  he  was  about  to  plead.  It  is  not  necessary  to  say 
that  while  doing  this  the  Provencal  was  watching  the 
manoeuvres  of  Thuillier  out  of  the  corner  of  his  eye. 
Thuillier,  believing  that  la  Peyrade  was  really  occupied 
in  some  serious  business,  hesitated  to  approach  him. 

However,  after  sundry  backings  and  fillings  the  muni- 
cipal councillor  made  up  his  mind,  and  sailing  straight 
before  the  wind  he  headed  for  the  spot  he  had  been 
reconnoitring  for  the  last  ten  minutes. 

4 'Bless  me,  Theodose!"  he  cried  as  soon  as  he  had 
got  within  hailing  distance.  "Do  you  come  to  the 
Palais  now  ?  " 

"It  seems  to  me,"  replied  Theodose,  "that  barristers 
at  the  Palais  are  like  Turks  at  Constantinople,  where  a 
friend  of  mine  affirmed  you  could  see  a  good  many.  It 
is  you  whom  it  is  rather  surprising  to  see  here." 

"Not  at  all,"  said  Thuillier,  carelessly.  "I  've  come 
about  that  cursed  pamphlet.  Is  there  ever  any  end  to 
your  legal  bothers?  I  was  summoned  here  this  morning, 
but  I  don't  regret  it,  as  it  gives  me  the  happy  chance  of 
meeting  you." 

"I,  too,"  said  la  Peyrade,  tying  up  his  bundle.     "I 


408  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

am  very  glad  to  see  you,  but  I  must  leave  you  now;  I 
have  an  appointment,  and  I  suppose  you  want  to  do 
your  business  at  once." 

"I  have  done  it,"  said  Thuillier. 

4 'Did  you  speak  to  Olivier  Vinet,  that  mortal  enemy 
of  yours?    he  sits  in  that  court,"   asked  la  Peyrade. 

"No,"  said  Thuillier,  naming  another  official. 

"Well,  that's  queer!"  said  the  barrister;  "that  fellow 
must  have  the  gift  of  ubiquity;  he  has  been  all  the 
morning  in  the  fifth  court-room,  and  has  just  this  minute 
given  a  judgment  on  a  case  I  pleaded." 

Thuillier  colored,  and  got  out  of  his  hobble  as  best  he 
could.  "Oh,  hang  it!"  he  said;  "those  men  in  gowns 
are  all  alike,  I  don't  know  one  from  another." 

La  Peyrade  shrugged  his  shoulders  and  said  aloud, 
but  as  if  to  himself:  "Always  the  same;  crafty,  crooked, 
never  straightforward." 

"Whom  are  you  talking  about? "  asked  Thuillier, 
rather  nonplussed. 

"Why,  of  you,  my  dear  fellow,  who  take  me  for  an 
imbecile,  as  if  I  and  the  whole  world  did  n't  know  that 
your  pamphlet  business  came  to  an  end  two  weeks  ago. 
Why,  then,  summon  you  to  court?" 

"Well,  I  was  sent  for,"  said  Thuillier,  with  embarrass- 
ment; "something  about  registry  fees,  —  it  is  all  Greek 
to  me,  I  can't  comprehend  their  scrawls." 

"And  they  chose,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "precisely  the 
very  day  when  the  Moniteur,  announcing  the  dissolution 
of  the  Chamber,  made  you  think  about  being  candidate 
for  the  12th  arrondissement." 

"Why  not?"  asked  Thuillier,  "what  has  my  candidacy 
to  do  with  the  fees  I  owe  to  the  court?  " 

"I  '11  tell  you,"  said  la  Peyrade,  dryly.  "The  court  is 
a  thing  essentially  amiable  and  complaisant.  '  Tiens!  ' 
it  said  to  itself,  4  here 's  this  good  Monsieur  Thuillier 
going  to  be  a  candidate  for  the  Chamber;  how  hampered 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  409 

he  '11  be  by  his  attitude  to  his  ex-friend  Monsieur  de  la 
Peyrade,  with  whom  he  wishes  now  he  hadn't  quarrelled. 
I'll  summon  him  for  fees  he  doesn't  owe;  that  will 
bring  him  to  the  Palais  where  la  Peyrade  comes  daily; 
and  in  that  way  he  can  meet  'him  by  chance,  and  so  avoid 
taking  a  step  which  would  hurt  his  self-love.'" 

"Well,  there  you  are  mistaken!  "  cried  Thuillier, 
breaking  the  ice.  "I  used  so  little  craft,  as  you  call  it, 
that  I've  just  come  from  your  house,  there!  and  your 
portress  told  me  where  to  find  you." 

"Well  done!  "  said  la  Peyrade,  "I  like  this  frank- 
ness; I  can  get  on  with  men  who  play  above-board. 
Well,  what  do  you  want  of  me?  Have  you  come  to  talk 
about  your  election ?  I  have  already  begun  to  work  for  it." 

"No,  really?"  said  Thuillier,  "how?" 

"Here,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  feeling  under  his  gown 
for  his  pocket  and  bringing  out  a  paper,  "here  's  what  I 
scribbled  just  now  in  the  court-room  while  the  lawyer  on 
the  other  side  rambled  on  like  an  expert." 

"What  is  it  about?  "  asked  Thuillier. 

"Read  and  you  '11  see." 

The  paper  read  as  follows :  — 

Estimate  for  a  newspaper,  small  size,  at  thirty  francs  a  year. 

Calculating  the  editions  at  5,000  the  costs  are  :  — 

Paper,  5  reams  at  12  francs 1,860  francs. 

Composition 2,400 

Printing 450 

One  administrator 250 

One  clerk 100 

One  editor  (also  cashier) '      200 

One  despatcher 100 

Folders 120 

One  office  boy 80 

Office  expenses 150 

Rent  .     .     .' 100 

License  and  postage 7,500 

Reporting  and  stenographic  news      .     .     1,800 

Total  monthly,         15,110 

"     yearly,  181,320 


410  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Do  you  want  to  set  up  a  paper?  "  asked  Thuillier,  in 
dread. 

"I?"  said  la  Peyrade,  "I  want  nothing  at  all;  you 
are  the  one  to  be  asked  if  you  want  to  be  a  deputy." 

"Undoubtedly  I  do;  because,  when  you  urged  me  to 
become  a  municipal  councillor,  you  put  the  idea  into  my 
head.  But  reflect,  my  dear  Theodose,  one  hundred  and 
eighty  one  thousand  three  hundred  and  twenty  francs  to 
put  out!  Have  I  a  fortune  large  enough  to  meet  such  a 
demand  ?  " 

"Yes,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "you  could  very  well  support 
that  expense,  for  considering  the  end  you  want  to  obtain 
there  is  nothing  exorbitant  in  it.  In  England  they 
make  much  greater  sacrifices  to  get  a  seat  in  Parliament; 
but  in  any  case,  I  beg  you  to  observe  that  the  costs  are 
very  high  on  that  estimate,  and  some  could  be  cut  off 
altogether.  For  instance,  you  would  not  want  an  admin- 
istrator. You,  yourself,  an  old  accountant,  and  I,  an  old 
journalist,  can  very  well  manage  the  affair  between  us. 
Also  rent,  we  needn't  count  that;  you  have  your  old 
apartment  in  the  rue  Saint-Dominique  which  is  not  yet 
leased;  that  will  make  a  fine  newspaper  office." 

"All  that  cuts  off  two  thousand  four  hundred  francs  a 
year,"  said  Thuillier. 

"Well,  that's  something;  but  your  error  consists  in 
calculating  on  the  yearly  cost.  When  do  the  elections 
take  place?" 

"In  two  months,"  said  Thuillier. 

"Very  good;  two  months  will  cost  you  thirty  thousand 
francs,  even  supposing  the  paper  has  no  subscribers." 

"True,"  said  Thuillier,  "the  expense  is  certainly  less 
than  I  thought  at  first.  But  does  a  newspaper  really 
seem  to  you  essential  ?  " 

"So  essential  that  without  that  power  in  our  hands,  I 
won't  have  anything  to  do  with  the  election.  You  don't 
seem  to  see,  my  poor  fellow,  that  in  going  to  live  in  the 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  411 

other  quarter  you  have  lost,  electorally  speaking,  an 
immense  amount  of  ground.  You  are  no  longer  the 
man  of  the  place,  and  your  election  could  be  balked  by 
the  cry  of  what  the  English  call  absenteeism.  This 
makes  your  game  very  hard  to  play." 

"I  admit  that,"  said  Thuillier;  "but  there  are  so 
many  things  wanted  besides  money,  —  a  name  for  one 
thing,  a  manager,  editorial  staff,  and  so  forth." 

"A  name,  we  have  one  made  to  hand;  editors,  they 
are  you  and  I  and  a  few  young  fellows  who  grow  on 
every  bush  in  Paris.  As  for  the  manager,  I  have  a  man 
in  view." 

"What  name  is  it?  "  asked  Thuillier. 

"L'EchodelaBievre." 

"But  there  is  already  a  paper  of  that  name." 

"Precisely,  and  that 's  why  I  give  my  approval  to  the 
affair.  Do  you  think  I  should  be  fool  enough  to  advise 
you  to  start  an  entirely  new  paper?  *  ^cho  de  la  Bievre ! ' 
that  title  is  a  treasure  to  a  man  who  wants  support  for 
his  candidacy  in  the  12th  arrondissement.  Say  the  word 
only,  and  I  put  that  treasure  into  your  hands." 

"How?  "  asked  Thuillier,  with  curiosity. 

" Parbleu  J  by  buying  it;  it  can  be  had  for  a  song." 

"There  now,  you  see,"  said  Thuillier  in  a  discouraged 
tone;   "you  never  counted  in  the  cost  of  purchase." 

"How  you  dwell  on  nothings!"  said  la  Peyrade, 
hunching  his  shoulders;  "we  have  other  and  more  im- 
portant difficulties  to  solve." 

"Other  difficulties?  "  echoed  Thuillier. 

"Parbleu/"  exclaimed  la  Peyrade;  "do  you  suppose 
that  after  all  that  has  taken  place  between  us  I  should 
boldly  harness  myself  to  your  election  without  knowing 
exactly  what  benefit  I  am  to  get  for  it?  " 

"But,"  said  Thuillier,  rather  astonished,  "I  thought 
that  friendship  was  a  good  exchange  for  such  services." 

"Yes;   but  when  the  exchange  consists   in  one  side 


412  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

giving  all  and  the  other  side  nothing,  friendship  gets 
tired  of  that  sort  of  sharing,  and  asks  for  something  a 
little  better  balanced." 

"But,  my  dear  Theodose,  what  have  I  to  offer  you  that 
you  have  not  already  rejected?  " 

"I  rejected  it,  because  it  was  offered  without  hearti- 
ness, and  seasoned  with  Mademoiselle  Brigitte's  vinegar; 
every  self-respecting  man  would  have  acted  as  I  did. 
Give  and  keep  don't  pass,  as  the  old  legal  saying  is; 
but  that  is  precisely  what  you  persist  in  doing." 

"I!  —  I  think  you  took  offence  very  unreasonably; 
but  the  engagement  might  be  renewed." 

"So  be  it,"  replied  la  Peyrade;  "but  I  will  not  put 
myself  at  the  mercy  of  either  the  success  of  the  election 
or  Mademoiselle  Celeste's  caprices.  I  claim  the  right  to 
something  positive  and  certain.  Give  and  take;  short 
accounts  make  good  friends." 

"I  perfectly  agree  with  you,"  said  Thuillier,  "and  I 
have  always  treated  you  with  too  much  good  faith  to 
fear  any  of  these  precautions  you  now  want  to  take. 
But  what  guarantees  do  you  want?" 

"I  want  that  the  husband  of  Celeste  should  manage 
your  election,  and  not  Theodose  de  la  Peyrade." 

"By  hurrying  things  as  much  as  possible,  so  Brigitte 
said,  it  would  still  take  fifteen  days;  and  just  think, 
with  the  elections  only  eight  weeks  off,  to  lose  two  of 
them  doing  nothing !  " 

"Day  after  to-morrow,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  "the 
banns  can  be  published  for  the  first  time  at  the  mayor's 
office;  in  the  intervals  of  publication  some  things  could 
be  done,  for  though  the  publishing  of  the  banns  is  not  a 
step  from  which  there  is  no  retreat,  it  is  at  least  a  public 
pledge  and  a  long  step  taken ;  after  that  we  can  get  your 
notary  to  draw  the  contract  at  once.  Moreover,  if  you 
decide  on  buying  this  newspaper,  I  should  n't  be  afraid 
that  you  would  go  back  on  me,  for  you  don't  want  a  use- 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  413 

less  horse  in  your  stable,  and  without  me  I  am  certain 
you  can't  manage  him." 

"But,  my  dear  fellow,"  said  Thuillier,  going  back  to 
his  objections,  "suppose  that  affair  proves  too  onerous?" 

"There  's  no  need  to  say  that  you  are  the  sole  judge  of 
the  conditions  of  the  purchase.  I  don't  wish  any  more 
than  you  do  to  buy  a  pig  in  a  poke.  If  to-morrow  you 
authorize  me,  I  won't  say  to  buy,  but  to  let  these  people 
know  that  you  may  possibly  make  the  purchase,  I  '11 
confer  with  one  of  them  on  your  behalf,  and  you  may 
be  certain  that  I  '11  stand  up  for  your  interests  as  if  they 
were  my  own." 

"Very  good,  my  dear  fellow,"  said  Thuillier,  "go 
ahead  1 " 

"And  as  soon  as  the  paper  is  purchased  we  are  to  fix 
the  day  for  signing  the  contract?  " 

"Yes,"  replied  Thuillier;  "but  will  you  bind  yourself 
to  use  your  utmost  influence  on  the  election?  " 

"As  if  it  were  my  own,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  "which, 
by  the  bye,  is  not  altogether  an  hypothesis.  I  have 
already  received  suggestions  about  my  own  candidacy, 
and  if  I  were  vindictive  —  " 

"Certainly,"  said  Thuillier,  with  humility,  "you  would 
make  a  better  deputy  than  I;  "but  you  are  not  of  the 
required  age,  I  think." 

"There  's  a  better  reason  than  that,"  said  la  Peyrade; 
"you  are  my  friend;  I  find  you  again  what  you  once 
were,  and  I  shall  keep  the  pledges  I  have  given  you. 
As  for  the  election,  I  prefer  that  people  should  say  of 
me,  '  He  makes  deputies,  but  will  be  none  himself.' 
Now  I  must  leave  you  and  keep  my  appointment.  To- 
morrow in  my  own  rooms,  come  and  see  me ;  I  shall 
have  something  to  announce." 

Whoso  has  ever  been  a  newspaper  man  will  ever  be 
one;  that  horoscope  is  as  sure  and  certain  as  that  of 
drunkards.      Whoever   has   tasted  that   feverishly  busy 


414  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

and  relatively  lazy  and  independent  life;  whoever  has 
exercised  that  sovereignty  which  criticises  intellect,  art, 
talent,  fame,  virtue,  absurdity,  and  even  truth;  whoever 
has  occupied  that  tribune  erected  by  his  own  hands, 
fulfilled  the  functions  of  that  magistracy  to  which  he  is 
self-appointed,  —  in  short,  whosoever  has  been,  for  how- 
ever brief  a  space,  that  proxy  of  public  opinion,  looks 
upon  himself  when  remanded  to  private  life  as  an  exile, 
and  the  moment  a  chance  is  offered  to  him  puts  out  an 
eager  hand  to  snatch  back  his  crown. 

For  this  reason  when  Etienne  Lousteau  went  to  la 
Peyrade,  a  former  journalist,  with  an  offer  of  the  weapon 
entitled  the  "Echo  de  la  Bievre,"  all  the  latter's  instincts 
as  a  newspaper  man  were  aroused,  in  spite  of  the  very 
inferior  quality  of  the  blade.  The  paper  had  failed ;  la 
Peyrade  believed  he  could  revive  it.  The  subscribers, 
on  the  vendor's  own  showing,  were  few  and  far  between, 
but  he  would  exercise  upon  them  a  compelle  intrare  both 
powerful  and  irresistible.  In  the  circumstances  under 
which  the  affair  was  presented  to  him  it  might  surely  be 
considered  providential.  Threatened  with  the  loss  of 
his  position  at  the  bar,  he  was  thus  acquiring,  as  we 
said  before,  a  new  position  and  that  of  a  detached  fort; 
compelled,  as  he  might  be,  to  defend  himself,  he  could 
from  that  vantage-ground  take  the  offensive  and  oblige 
his  enemies  to  reckon  with  him. 

On  the  Thuillier  side,  the  newspaper  would  undoubt- 
edly make  him  a  personage  of  considerable  importance; 
he  would  have  more  power  on  the  election;  and  by 
involving  their  capital  in  an  enterprise  which,  without 
him,  they  would  feel  to  be  a  gulf  and  a  snare,  he  bound 
them  to  him  by  self-interests  so  firmly  that  there  was 
nothing  to  fear  from  their  caprice  or  ingratitude. 

This  horizon,  rapidly  taken  in  during  Etienne  Lou- 
steau's  visit,  had  fairly  dazzled  the  Provencal,  and  we 
have  seen  the  peremptory  manner  in  which  Thuillier  was 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  415 

forced    into   accepting  with   some   enthusiasm    the  dis- 
covery of  this  philosopher's-stone. 

The  cost  of  the  purchase  was  ridiculously  insignifi- 
cant. A  bank-note  for  five  hundred  francs,  for  which 
Etienne  Lousteau  never  clearly  accounted  to  the  share- 
holders, put  Thuillier  in  possession  of  the  name, 
property,  furniture,  and  good-will  of  the  newspaper, 
which  he  and  la  Peyrade  at  once  busied  themselves  in 
reorganizing. 


416  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


X. 


IN   WHICH    CERIZET    PRACTISES   THE    HEALING    ART   AND 
THE   ART   OF    POISONING    ON   THE    SAME   DAY. 

While  this  regeneration  was  going  on,  Cerizet  went 
one  morning  to  see  du  Portail,  with  whom  la  Peyrade 
was  now  more  than  ever  determined  to  hold  no  com- 
munication. 

"Well,"  said  the  little  old  man  to  the  poor  man's 
banker,  "what  effect  did  the  news  we  gave  to  the. presi- 
dent of  the  bar  produce  on  our  man  ?  Did  the  affair  get 
wind  at  the  Palais  ?  " 

"Phew!"  said  Cerizet,  whose  intercourse,  no  doubt 
pretty  frequent,  with  du  Portail  had  put  him  on  a  foot- 
ing of  some  familiarity  with  the  old  man,  "there  's  no 
question  of  that  now.  The  eel  has  wriggled  out  of  our 
hands ;  neither  softness  nor  violence  has  any  effect  upon 
that  devil  of  a  man.  He  has  quarrelled  with  the  bar, 
and  is  in  better  odor  than  ever  with  Thuillier.  'Neces- 
sity,' says  Figaro,  'obliterates  distance.'  Thuillier 
needs  him  to  push  his  candidacy  in  the  quartier  Saint- 
Jacques,  so  they  kissed  and  made  up." 

"And  no  doubt,"  said  du  Portail,  without  much  ap- 
pearance of  feeling,  "  the  marriage  is  fixed  for  an  early 
day?" 

"Yes,"  replied  Cerizet,  "but  there's  another  piece  of 
work  on  hand.  That  crazy  fellow  has  persuaded  Thuil- 
lier to  buy  a  newspaper,  and  he  '11  make  him  sink  forty 
thousand  francs  in  it.  Thuillier,  once  involved,  will 
want  to  get  his  money  back,  and  in  my  opinion  they  are 
bound  together  for  the  rest  of  their  days." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  417 

"What  paper  is  it?" 

k40h,  a  cabbage-leaf  that  calls  itself  the  *  ^cho  de  la 
Biovre'!"  replied  Cerizet  with  great  scorn;  "a  paper 
which  an  old  hack  of  a  journalist  on  his  last  legs  man- 
aged to  set  up  in  the  Mouffetard  quarter  by  the  help  of  a 
lot  of  tanners  —  that,  you  know,  is  the  industry  of  the 
quarter.  From  a  political  and  literary  point  of  view  the 
affair  is  nothing  at  all,  but  Thuillier  has  been  made  to 
think  ,it  a  masterly  stroke." 

"Well,  for  local  service  to  the  election  the  instrument 
is  n't  so  bad,"  remarked  du  Portail.  "La  Peyrade  has 
talent,  activity,  and  much  resource  of  mind;  he  may 
make  something  out  of  that '  Echo. '  Under  what  politi- 
cal banner  will  Thuillier  present  himself?  " 

"Thuillier,"  replied  the  beggars'  banker,  "is  an 
oyster;  he  hasn't  any  opinions.  Until  the  publication 
of  his  pamphlet  he  wa3,  like  all  those  bourgeois,  a  rabid 
conservative;  but  since  the  seizure  he  has  gone  over  to 
the  Opposition.  His  first  stage  will  probably  be  the 
Left-centre;  but  if  the  election  wind  should  blow  from 
another  quarter,  he  '11  go  straight  before  it  to  the 
extreme  left.  Self-interest,  for  those  bourgeois,  that 's 
the  measure  of  their  convictions." 

"Dear,  dear!  "  said  du  Portail,  "this  new  combina- 
tion of  la  Peyrade' s  may  assume  the  importance  of  a 
political  danger  from  the  point  of  view  of  my  opinions, 
which  are  extremely  conservative  and  governmental." 
Then,  after  a  moment's  reflection,  he  added,  "I  think 
you  did  newspaper  work  once  upon  a  time ;  I  remember 
'the  courageous  Cerizet."  " 

"Yes,"  replied  the  usurer,  "I  even  managed  one  with 
la  Peyrade, —  an  evening  paper;  and  a  pretty  piece  of 
work  we  did,  for  which  we  were  finely  recompensed." 

"Well,"  said  du  Portail,  "why  don't  you  do  it  again, 
—  journalism,  I  mean,  —  with  la  Peyrade." 

Cerizet  looked  at  du  Portail  in  amazement. 
27 


418  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Ah  ca  !  "  he  cried,  "are  you  the  devil,  monsieur?  Cao 
nothing  ever  be  hidden  from  you  ?  " 

uYes,"  said  du  Portail,  "I  know  a  good  many  things. 
But  what  has  been  settled  between  you  and  la  Peyrade?" 

"Well,  remembering  my  experience  in  the  business, 
and  not  knowing  whom  else  to  get,  he  offered  to  make  me 
manager  of  the  paper." 

"I  did  not  know  that,"  said  du  Portail,  "but  it  was 
quite  probable.     Did  you  accept?  " 

"Conditionally;  I  asked  time  for  reflection.  I  wanted 
to  know  what  you  thought  of  the  offer."* 

"Parbleu!  I  think  that  out  of  an  evil  that  can't  be 
remedied  we  should  get,  as  the  proverb  says,  wing  or 
foot.  I  had  rather  see  you  inside  than  outside  of  that 
enterprise." 

"Very  good;  but  in  order  to  get  into  it  there  's  a  diffi- 
culty. La  Peyrade  knows  I  have  debts,  and  he  won't 
help  me  with  the  thirty-three- thousand -francs'  security 
which  must  be  paid  down  in  my  name.  I  have  n't  got 
them,  and  if  I  had,  I  would  n't  show  them  and  expose 
myself  to  the  insults  of  creditors." 

"You  must  have  a  good  deal  left  of  that  twenty-five 
thousand  francs  la  Peyrade  paid  you  not  more  than  two 
months  ago,"  remarked  du  Portail. 

"Only  two  thousand  two  hundred  francs  and  fifty  cen- 
times," replied  Cerizet.  "I  was  adding  it  up  last  night; 
the  rest  has  all  gone  to  pay  off  pressing  debts." 

"But  if  you  have  paid  your  debts  you  haven't  any 
creditors." 

"Yes,  those  I've  paid,  but  those  I  haven't  paid  I 
still  owe." 

"Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  your  liabilities  were 
more  than  twenty-five  thousand  francs  ?  "  said  du  Portail, 
in  a  tone  of  incredulity. 

"Does  a  man  go  into  bankruptcy  for  less?"  replied 
Ce'rizet,  as  though  he  were  enunciating  a  maxim. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  419 

"Well,  I  see  I  am  expected  to  pay  that  sum  myself," 
said  du  Portail,  crossly;  "but  the  question  is  whether 
the  utility  of  your  presence  in  this  enterprise  is  worth 
to  me  the  interest  on  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  thou- 
sand, three  hundred  and  thirty-three  francs,  thirty-three 
centimes." 

"Hang  it!"  said  Cerizet,  "if  I  were  once  installed 
near  Thuillier,  I  should  n't  despair  of  soon  putting  him 
and  la  Peyrade  at  loggerheads.  In  the  management  of 
a  newspaper  there  are  lots  of  inevitable  disagreements, 
and  by  always  taking  the  side  of  the  fool  against  the 
clever  man,  I  can  increase  the  conceit  of  one  and  wound 
the  conceit  of  the  other  till  life  together  becomes  impos- 
sible. Besides,  you  spoke  just  now  of  political  danger; 
now  the  manager  of  a  newspaper,  as  you  ought  to  know, 
when  he  has  the  intellect  to  be  something  better  than  a 
man  of  straw,  can  quietly  give  his  sheet  a  push  in  the 
direction  wanted." 

"There  's  a  good  deal  of  truth  in  that,"  said  du  Portail, 
"but  defeat  to  la  Peyrade,  that's  what  I  am  thinking 
about." 

"Well,"  said  Ce'rizet,  "I  think  I  have  another  nice 
little  insidious  means  of  demolishing  him  with  Thuillier." 

"  Say  what  it  is,  then !  "  exclaimed  du  Portail,  impa- 
tiently; "you  go  round  and  round  the  pot  as  if  I  were 
a  man  it  would  do  you  some  good  to  finesse  with." 
,  "You  remember,"  said  Cerizet,  coming  out  with  it, 
"that  some  time  ago  Dutocq  and  I  were  much  puzzled 
to  know  how  la  Peyrade  was,  all  of  a  sudden,  able  to 
make  that  payment  of  twenty-five  thousand  francs?" 

"Ha!  "  said  the  old  man  quickly,  "have  you  dis- 
covered the  origin  of  that  very  improbable  sum  in  our 
friend's  hands;    and  is  that  origin  shady?" 

"You  shall  judge,"  said  Cerizet. 

And  he  related  in  all  its  details  the  affair  of  Madame 
Lambert,  —  adding,    however,  that  on    questioning  the 


420  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

woman  closely  at  the  office  of  the  justice-of-peace,  after 
the  meeting  with  la  Peyrade,  he  had  been  unable  to 
extract  from  her  any  confession,  although  by  her  whole 
bearing  she  had  amply  confirmed  the  suspicions  of 
Dutocq  and  himself. 

"Madame  Lambert,  rue  du  Val-de-Grace,  No.  9;  at 
the  house  of  Monsieur  Picot,  professor  of  mathematics," 
said  du  Portail,  as  he  made  a  note  of  the  information. 
"Very  good,"  he  added;  "come  back  and  see  me  to- 
morrow, my  dear  Monsieur  Cerizet." 

"But  please  remark,"  said  the  usurer,  "that  I  must 
give  an  answer  to  la  Peyrade  in  the  course  of  to-day. 
He  is  in  a  great  hurry  to  start  the  business." 

"Very  well;  you  must  accept,  asking  a  delay  of 
twenty-four  hours  to  obtain  your  security.  If,  after 
making  certain  inquiries  I  see  it  is  more  to  my  interests 
not  to  meddle  in  the  affair,  you  can  get  out  of  it  by 
merely  breaking  your  word;  you  can't  be  sent  to  the 
court  of  assizes  for  that." 

Independently  of  a  sort  of  inexplicable  fascination 
which  du  Portail  exercised  over  his  agent,  he  never  lost 
an  opportunity  to  remind  him  of  the  very  questionable 
point  of  departure  of  their  intercourse. 

The  next  day  Cerizet  returned. 

"You  guessed  right,"  said  du  Portail.  "That  woman 
Lambert,  being  obliged  to  conceal  the  existence  of  her 
booty,  and  wanting  to  draw  interest  on  her  stolen 
property,  must  have  taken  it  into  her  head  to  con- 
sult la  Peyrade;  his  devout  exterior  may  have  recom- 
mended him  to  her.  She  probably  gave  him  that  money 
without  taking  a  receipt.  In  what  kind  of  money  was 
Dutocq  paid?" 

"In  nineteen  thousand-franc  notes,  and  twelve  of  five 
hundred  francs." 

"That 's  precisely  it,"  said  du  Portail.  "There  can't 
be   the   slightest   doubt   left.     Now,   what   use  do   you 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  421 

expect  to  make  of  this  information  bearing  upon 
Thuillier." 

"I  expect  to  put  into  bis  head  that  la  Peyrade,  to 
whom  he  is  going  to  give  his  goddaughter  and  heiress, 
is  over  head  and  ears  in  debt;  that  he  makes  enormous 
secret  loans ;  and  that  in  order  to  get  out  of  his  difficul- 
ties he  means  to  gnaw  the  newspaper  to  the  bone ;  and 
I  shall  insinuate  that  the  position  of  a  man  so  much  in 
debt  must  be  known  to  the  public  before  long,  and  become 
a  fatal  blow  to  the  candidate  whose  right  hand  he  is." 

"That's  not  bad,"  said  du  Portail;  "but  there's 
another  and  even  more  conclusive  use  to  be  made  of  the 
discovery." 

"Tell  me,  master;  I  'm  listening,"  said  Cerizet. 

"Thuillier  has  not  yet  been  able,  has  he,  to  explain 
to  himself  the  reason  of  the  seizure  of  the  famous 
pamphlet?  " 

"Yes,  he  has,"  replied  Cerizet.  "La  Peyrade  was  tell- 
ing me  only  yesterday,  by  way  of  explaining  Thuillier's 
idiotic  simplicity,  that  he  had  believed  a  most  ridiculous 
bit  of  humbug.  The  '  honest  bourgeois  '  is  persuaded 
that  the  seizure  was  instigated  by  Monsieur  Olivier  Vinet, 
substitute  to  the  procureur- general.  The  young  man  as- 
pired for  a  moment  to  the  hand  of  Mademoiselle  Colleville, 
and  the  worthy  Thuillier  has  been  made  to  imagine  that  the 
seizure  of  his  pamphlet  was  a  revenge  for  the  refusal." 

"Good!"  said  du  Portail ;  "to-morrow,  as  a  prepara- 
tion for  the  other  version  of  which  you  are  to  be  the 
organ,  Thuillier  shall  receive  from  Monsieur  Vinet  a 
very  sharp  and  decided  denial  of  the  abuse  of  power  he 
foolishly  gave  ear  to." 

"Will  he?  ".said  Cerizet,  with  curiosity. 

"But  another  explanation  must  take  its  place,"  con- 
tinued du  Portail;  "you  must  assure  Thuillier  that  he 
is  the  victim  of  police  machinations.  That  is  all  the 
police  is  good  for,  you  know,  —  machinations." 


422  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"I  know  that  very  well;  I've  made  that  affirmation 
scores  of  times  when  I  was  working  for  the  republican 
newspapers  and  —  " 

4 'When  you  were  'the  courageous  Cerizet,'"  inter- 
posed du  Portail.  "Well,  the  present  machination, 
here  it  is.  The  government  was  much  displeased  at  see- 
ing Thuillier  elected  without  its  influence  to  the  Council- 
general  of  the  Seine ;  it  was  angry  with  an  independent 
and  patriotic  citizen  who  showed  by  his  candidacy  that 
he  could  do  without  it;  and  it  learned,  moreover,  that 
this  excellent  citizen  was  preparing  a  pamphlet  on  the 
subject,  always  a  delicate  one,  of  the  finances,  as  to 
which  this  dangerous  adversary  had  great  experience. 
So,  what  did  this  essentially  corrupt  government  do? 
It  suborned  a  man  in  whom,  as  it  learned,  Thuillier 
placed  confidence,  and  for  a  sum  of  twenty-five  thousand 
francs  (a  mere  trifle  to  the  police),  this  treacherous  friend 
agreed  to  insert  into  the  pamphlet  three  or  four  phrases 
which  exposed  it  to  seizure  and  caused  its  author  to  be 
summoned  before  the  court  of  assizes.  Now  the  way 
to  make  the  explanation  clinch  the  doubt  in  Thuillier's 
mind  is  to  let  him  know  that  the  next  day  la  Peyrade, 
who,  as  Thuillier  knew,  had  n't  a  sou,  paid  Dutocq  pre- 
cisely that  very  sum  of  twenty-five  thousand  francs." 

"The  devil!"  cried  Cerizet,  "it  isn't  a  bad  trick. 
Fellows  of  the  Thuillier  species  will  believe  anything 
against  the  police." 

"We  shall  see,  then,"  continued  du  Portail,  "whether 
Thuillier  will  want  to  keep  such  a  collaborates  beside 
him,  and  above  all,  whether  he  will  be  so  eager  to  give 
him  his  goddaughter." 

"You  are  a  strong  man,  monsieur,"  said  Cerizet,  again 
expressing  his  approbation;  "but  I  must  own  that  I  feel 
some  scruples  at  the  part  assigned  me.  La  Peyrade 
came  and  offered  me  the  management  of  the  paper,  and, 
you  see,  I  should  be  working  to  evict  him." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  423 

"And  that  lease  he  knocked  you  out  of  in  spite  of  his 
promises,  have  you  forgotten  that?"  asked  the  little  old 
man.  "Besides,  are  not  we  aiming  for  his  happiness, 
though  the  obstinate  fellow  persists  in  thwarting  our 
benevolent  intentions?" 

"It  is  true,"  said  Cerizet,  "that  the  result  will  absolve 
me.  Yes,  I  '11  go  resolutely  along  the  ingenious  path 
you  've  traced  out  for  me.  But  there  's  one  thing  more: 
I  can't  fling  my  revelation  at  Thuillier's  head  at  the 
very  first;  I  must  have  time  to  prepare  the  way  for  it, 
but  that  security  will  have  to  be  paid  in  immediately." 

"Listen  to  me,  Monsieur  Cerizet,"  said  du  Portail,  in 
a  tone  of  authority;  "if  the  marriage  of  la  Peyrade  to 
my  ward  takes  place  it  is  my  intention  to  reward  your 
services,  and  the  sum  of  thirty  thousand  francs  will  be 
your  perquisite.  Now,  thirty  thousand  fr6m  one  side 
and  twenty-five  thousand  from  the  other  makes  precisely 
fifty-five  thousand  francs  that  the  matrimonial  vicissi- 
tudes of  your  friend  la  Peyrade  will  have  put  into  your 
pocket.  But,  as  country  people  do  at  the  shows  of  a 
fair,  I  shall  not  pay  till  I  come  out.  If  you  take  that 
money  out  of  your  own  hoard  I  shall  feel  no  anxiety; 
you  will  know  how  to  keep  it  from  the  clutches  of  your 
creditors.  If,  on  the  contrary,  my  money  is  at  stake, 
you  will  have  neither  the  same  eagerness  nor  the  same 
intelligence  in  keeping  it  out  of  danger.  Therefore 
arrange  your  affairs  so  that  you  can  pay  down  your  own 
thirty-three  thousand ;  in  case  of  success,  that  sum  will 
bring  you  in  pretty  nearly  a  hundred  per  cent.  That 's 
my  last  word,  and  I  shall  not  listen  to  any  objections." 

Cerizet  had  no  time  to  make  any,  for  at  that  moment 
the  door  of  du  PortaiPs  study  opened  abruptly,  and  a 
fair,  slender  woman,  whose  face  expressed  angelic  sweet- 
ness, entered  the  room  eagerly.  On  her  arm,  wrapped 
in  handsome  long  clothes,  lay  what  seemed  to  be  the  form 
of  an  infant. 


424  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"There!"  she  said,  "that  nalighty  Katte  insisted  that 
the  doctor  was  not  here.  I  knew  perfectly  well  that  I 
had  seen  him  enter.  Well,  doctor,"  she  continued,  ad- 
dressing Cerizet,  UI  am  not  satisfied  with  the  condition 
of  my  little  one,  not  satisfied  at  all ;  she  is  very  pallid, 
and  has  grown  so  thin.     I  think  she  must  be  teething." 

Du  Portail  made  Cerizet  a  sign  to  accept  the  role  so 
abruptly  thrust  upon  him. 

"Yes,  evidently,"  he  said,  "it  is  the  teeth;  children 
always  turn  pale  at  that  crisis;  but  there's  nothing  in 
that,  my  dear  lady,  that  need  make  you  anxious." 

"Do  you  really  think  so,  doctor,"  said  the  poor  crazed 
girl,  whom  our  readers  have  recognized  as  du  Portail' s 
ward,  Lydie  de  la  Peyrade;  "but  see  her  dear  little 
arms,  how  thin  they  are  getting." 

Then  taking  out  the  pins  that  fastened  the  swathings, 
she  exhibited  to  Cerizet  a  bundle  of  linen  which  to  her 
poor  distracted  mind  represented  a  baby. 

"Why  no,  no,"  said  Cerizet,  "she  is  a  trifle  thin,  it  is 
true,  but  the  flesh  is  firm  and  her  color  excellent." 

"Poor  darling!  "  said  Lydie,  kissing  her  dream  lov- 
ingly. "I  do  think  she  is  better  since  morning.  What 
had  I  better  give  her,  doctor?  Broth  disgusts  her,  and 
she  won't  take  soup." 

"Well,"  said  Cerizet,  "try  panada.  Does  she  like 
sweet  things  ?  " 

4 'Oh,  yes!  "  cried  the  poor  girl,  her  face  brightening, 
"she  adores  them.     Would  chocolate  be  good  for  her?  " 

"Certainly,"  replied  Cerizet,  "but  without  vanilla; 
vanilla  is  very  heating." 

"Then  I  '11  get  what  they  call  health-chocolate,"  said 
Lydie,  with  all  the  intonations  of  a  mother,  listening  to 
the  doctor  as  to  a  god  who  reassured  her.  "Uncle," 
she  added,  "please  ring  for  Bruneau,  and  tell  him  to 
go  to  Marquis  at  once  and  get  some  pounds  of  that 
chocolate." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  425 

"Bruneau  has  just  gone  out,"  said  her  guardian;  "but 
there  's  no  hurry,  he  shall  go  in  the  course  of  the  day." 

"There,  she  is  going  to  sleep,"  said  Cerizet,  anxious 
to  put  an  end  to  the  scene,  which,  in  spite  of  his  hard- 
ened nature,  he  felt  to  be  painful. 

"True,"  said  the  girl,  replacing  the  bandages  and 
rising;  "I  '11  put  her  to  bed.  Adieu,  doctor;  it  is  very 
kind  of  you  to  come  sometimes  without  being  sent  for. 
If  you  knew  how  anxious  we  poor  mothers  are,  and  how, 
with  a  word  or  two,  you  can  do  us  such  good.  Ah, 
there  she  is  crying !  " 

"She  is  so  sleepy,"  said  Cerizet;  "she  '11  be  much 
better  in  her  cradle." 

"Yes,  and  I  '11  play  her  that  sonata  of  Beethoven  that 
dear  papa  was  so  fond  of;  it  is  wonderful  how  calming 
it  is.  Adieu,  doctor,"  she  said  again,  pausing  on  the 
threshold  of  the  door.  "Adieu,  kind  doctor!  "  And  she 
sent  him  a  kiss. 

Cerizet  was  quite  overcome. 

"You  see,"  said  du  Portail,  "that  she  is  an  angel,  — 
never  the  least  ill-humor,  never  a  sharp  word ;  sad  some- 
times, but  always  caused  by  a  feeling  of  motherly  solici- 
tude. That  is  what  first  gave  the  doctors  the  idea  that 
if  reality  could  take  the  place  of  her  constant  hallucina- 
tion she  might  recover  her  reason.  Well,  this  is  the 
girl  that  fool  of  a  Peyrade  refuses,  with  the  accompani- 
ment of  a  magnificent  dot.  But  he  must  come  to  it, 
or  I  '11  forswear  my  name.  Listen,"  he  added  as  the 
sound  of  a  piano  came  to  them;  "hear!  what  talent! 
Thousands  of  sane  women  can't  compare  with  her; 
they  are  not  as  reasonable  as  she  is,  except  on  the 
surface." 

When  Beethoven's  sonata,  played  from  the  soul  with 
a  perfection  of  shades  and  tones  that  filled  her  hardened 
hearer  with  admiration,  had  ceased  to  sound,  Cerizet 
said :  — 


426  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"I  agree  with  you,  monsieur;  la  Peyrade  refuses  an 
angel,  a  treasure,  a  pearl,  and  if  I  were  in  his  place  — 
But  we  shall  bring  hiin  round  to  your  purpose.  Now  I 
shall  serve  you  not  only  with  zeal,  but  with  enthusiasm, 
I  may  say  fanaticism." 

As  Cerizet  was  concluding  this  oath  of  fidelity  at  the 
door  of  the  study,  he  heard  a  woman's  voice  which  was 
not  that  of  Lydie. 

"Is  he  in  his  study,  the  dear  commander?"  said  that 
voice,  with  a  slightly  foreign  accent. 

"Yes,  madame,  but  please  come  into  the  salon.  Mon- 
sieur is  not  alone;  I  will  tell  him  you  are  here." 

This  was  the  voice  of  Katte,  the  old  Dutch  maid. 

"Stop,  go  this  way,"  said  du  Portail  quickly  to 
Cerizet. 

And  he  opened  a  hidden  door  which  led  through  a 
dark  corridor  directly  to  the  staircase,  whence  Cerizet 
betook  himself  to  the  office  of  the  "Echo  de  la  Bievre," 
where  a  heated  discussion  was  going  on. 

The  article  by  which  the  new  editors  of  every  news- 
paper lay  before  the  public  their  "profession  of  faith," 
as  the  technical  saying  is,  always  produces  a  laborious 
and  difficult  parturition.  In  this  particular  case  it 
was  necessary,  if  not  openly  to  declare  Thuillier's  candi- 
dacy, to  at  least  make  it  felt  and  foreseen.  The 
terms  of  the  manifesto,  -after  la  Peyrade  had  made  a 
rough  draft  of  it,  were  discussed  at  great  length.  This 
discussion  took  place  in  Cerizet's  presence,  who,  acting 
on  du  Portail' s  advice,  accepted  the  management,  but 
postponed  the  payment  of  the  security  till  the  next  day, 
through  the  latitude  allowed  in  all  administrations  for 
the  accomplishment  of  that  formality. 

Cleverly  egged  on  by  this  master-knave,  who,  from 
the  start,  made  himself  Thuillier's  flatterer,  the  discus- 
sion became  stormy,  and  presently  bitter;  but  as,  by 
the  deed  of  partnership  the  deciding  word  was  left  to 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  427 

la  Peyrade  in  all  matters  concerning  the  editorship,  he 
finally  closed  it  by  sending  the  manifesto  precisely  as  he 
had  written  it  to  the  printing-office. 
*  Thuillier  was  incensed  at  what  he  called  an  abuse  of 
power,  and  finding  himself  alone  with  Cerizet  later  in 
the  day,  he  hastened  to  pour  his  griefs  and  resentments 
into  the  bosom  of  his  faithful  manager,  thus  affording 
the  latter  a  ready-made  and  natural  opportunity  to 
insinuate  the  calumnious  revelation  agreed  upon  with 
du  Portail.  The  thing  was  done  with  an  art  and  a 
decorum  that  would  have  duped  a  much  shrewder  mind 
than  that  of  Thuillier.  Cerizet  gave  himself  an  air  of 
being  frightened  at  the  betrayal  of  a  secret,  wrung  from 
him  by  the  ardor  of  his  zeal  and  by  a  certain  sympathy 
which  he  felt  for  "the  elevation  of  mind  and  character 
which  from  the  first  had  impressed  him  in  Thuillier." 
The  latter  re-assured  the  traitor,  promising  that  in  no 
possible  manner  should  he  ever  be  mixed  up  in  the 
inquiry  which  must  follow  upon  such  a  statement;  he 
would  make  it  seem  that  he  had  been  informed  by  other 
parties;  if  necessary,  he  would  direct  suspicion  upon 
Dutocq.  Leaving  the  knife  in  the  wound,  Cerizet  went 
out  to  make  certain  necessary  arrangements  to  obtain 
the  money  necessary  for  his  bond. 

Tortured  by  the  terrible  revelation,  Thuillier  could  not 
keep  it  to  himself;  he  felt  the  need  of  confiding  it,  and 
of  talking  over  the  course  he  would  be  compelled  to  take 
by  this  infernal  discovery.  Sending  for  a  carriage  he 
drove  home,  and  half  an  hour  later  he  had  told  the 
whole  story  to  his  Egeria. 

Brigitte  had  from  the  first  very  vehemently  declared 
against  all  the  .determinations  made  by  Thuillier  during 
the  last  few  days.  For  no  purpose  whatever,  not  even 
for  the  sake  of  her  brother's  election,  would  she  agree  to 
a  renewal  of  the  relation  to  la  Peyrade.  In  the  first 
place,  she  had  treated  him  badly,  and  that  was  a  strong 


428  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

reason  for  disliking  him;  then,  in  case  that  adventurer, 
as  she  now  called  him,  married  Celeste,  the  fear  of  her 
authority  being  lessened  gave  her  a  species  of  second- 
sight;  she  had  ended  by  having  an  intuitive  sense  of 
the  dark  profundities  of  the  man's  nature,  and  now 
declared  that  under  no  circumstances  and  for  no  possible 
price  would  she  make  one  household  with  him. 

Beside  himself  with  electoral  ambition,  Thuillier,  in 
defiance  of  her,  had  gone  his  own  way,  hoping  that  his 
sister  would  come  round  in  time.  But  so  far,  especially 
in  all  matters  relating  to  the  newspaper,  she  had  met 
him  with  an  opposition  that  amounted  to  bitterness. 

4 'Ruin  yourself  if  you  choose,"  she  said;  "you  are  the 
master  of  that,  and  you  can  do  as  you  like ;  a  fool  and 
his  money  are  soon  parted." 

When  therefore  she  listened  to  her  brother's  confi- 
dences it  was  not  with  reproaches,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
with  a  crow  of  triumph,  celebrating  the  probable  return 
of  her  power,  that  she  welcomed  them. 

"So  much  the  better!  "  she  cried;  "it  is  well  to  know 
at  last  that  the  man  is  a  spy.  I  always  thought  so, 
the  canting  bigot!  Turn  him  out  of  doors  without  an 
explanation.  We  don't  want  him  to  work  that  news- 
paper. This  Monsieur  Cerizet  seems,  from  what  you 
tell  me,  the  right  sort  of  man,  and  we  can  get  another 
manager.  Besides,  when  Madame  de  Godollo  went  away 
she  promised  to  write  to  me ;  and  she  can  easily  put  us 
in  the  way  of  finding  some  one.  Poor,  dear  Celeste! 
what  a  fate  we  were  going  to  give  her!" 

"How  you  run  on!  "  said  Thuillier.  "La  Peyrade,  my 
dear,  is  so  far  only  accused.  He  must  be  heard  in  his 
defence.     And  besides,  there  's  a  deed  that  binds  us." 

"Ah,  very  good!"  said  Brigitte;  "I  see  how  it  will 
be;  you  '11  let  that  man  twist  you  round  his  finger  again. 
A  deed  with  a  spy!  As  if  there  could  be  deeds  with 
such  fellows." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  429 

"Come,  come,  be  calm,  my  good  Brigitte,"  returned 
Thuillier.  "We  mustn't  do  any  thing  hastily.  Cer- 
tainly, if  la  Peyrade  cannot  furnish  a  justification, 
clear,  categorical,  and  convincing,  I  shall  decide  to 
break  with  him,  and  T  '11  prove  to  you  that  I  am  no 
milksop.  But  Cerizet  himself  is  not  certain ;  these  are 
mere  inductions,  and  I  only  came  to  consult  you  as  to 
whether  I  ought,  or  ought  not,  to  demand  an  explanation 
outright." 

"Not  a  doubt  about  it,"  replied  Brigitte.  "You  ought 
to  demand  an  explanation  and  go  to  the  bottom  of  this 
thing;  if  you  don't,  I  cast  you  off  as  my  brother." 

"That  suffices,"  said  Thuillier,  leaving  the  room  with 
solemnity;  "you  shall  see  that  we  will  come  to  an 
understanding." 


430  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


XL 

EXPLANATIONS    AND    WHAT   CAME    OF   THEM. 

Since  the  purchase  of  the  newspaper  had  been  made, 
Thuillier,  arriving  at  the  office  two  hours  earlier  than 
was  necessary,  spent  his  whole  day  there,  tormenting 
everybody  with  his  fussy  interference;  he  returned  for 
the  evening  after  dinner,  and  would  fain  have  slept 
there.  During  the  few  moments  in  the  day  when  his 
family  saw  him  he  complained  so  much  of  the  fatigue 
caused  by  the  multiplicity  of  his  occupations  that  Ma- 
dame Thuillier  had  begun  to  fear  about  his  health. 

On  his  return  to  the  office  after  his  conference  with 
Brigitte,  he  found  that  the  last  consecration  had  just 
been  given  to  the  enterprise;  an  apprentice  from  the 
printing-office  had  brought  in  a  ream  of  letter-paper 
having  at  the  top  of  each  sheet  the  name  and  address  of 
the  "Echo."  Until  the  letter-heads  are  printed  a  news- 
paper cannot  be  said  to  exist.  The  letter-head  is,  as  it 
were,  its  baptism.  That  is  why  all  founders  of  journal- 
istic publications  begin  their  labors  by  that  symbolical 
occupation;  they  are  always  afraid  their  creation  may 
die  before  it  receives  its  chrism. 

Thuillier  found  la  Peyrade  at  his  post  as  editor-in- 
chief,  and  in  a  position  of  much  embarrassment,  caused 
by  the  high  hand  he  had  reserved  for  himself  as  the  sole 
selector  of  articles  and  contributors.  At  this  moment 
Phellion,  instigated  by  his  family,  and  deeply  conscious 
of  his  position  on  the  reading-committee  of  the  Odeon, 
had  come  to  offer  his  services  as  dramatic  critic. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.        ,  431 

"My  dear  monsieur,"  he  said,  continuing  his  remarks 
to  la  Peyrade,  after  inquiring  of  Thuillier  about  his 
health,  "I  was  a  great  student  of  the  theatre  in  my 
youth ;  the  stage  and  its  scenic  effects  continue  to  have 
for  me  peculiar  attractions;  and  the  white  hairs  which 
crown  my  brow  to-day  seem  to  me  no  obstacle  to  my 
allowing  your  interesting  publication  to  profit  by  the 
fruit  of  my  studies  and  my  experience.  As  member  of 
the  reading-committee  of  the  Odeon  theatre,  I  am  con- 
versant with  the  modern  drama,  and  —  if  I  may  be  quite 
sure  of  your  discretion  —  I  will  even  confide  to  you  that 
among  my  papers  it  would  not  be  impossible  for  me 
to  find  a  certain  tragedy  entitled  '  Sapor,'  which  in  my 
young  days  won  me  some  fame  when  read  in  salons." 

"Ah!"  said  la  Peyrade,  endeavoring  to  gild  the 
refusal  he  should  be  forced  to  give,  "why  not  try  to 
have  it  put  upon  the  stage?  We  might  be  able  to  help 
you  in  that  direction." 

"Certainly,"  said  Thuillier,  "the  director  of  any 
theatre  to  whom  we  should  recommend  —  " 

"No,"  replied  Phellion.  "In  the  first  place,  as  mem- 
ber of  the  reading-committee  of  the  Ode'on  having  to  sit 
in  judgment  upon  others,  it  would  not  become  me  to 
descend  into  the  arena  myself.  I  am  an  old  athlete, 
whose  business  it  is  to  judge  of  blows  he  can  no  longer 
give.  In  this  sense,  criticism  is  altogether  within  my 
sphere,  and  all  the  more  because  I  have  certain  views 
on  the  proper  method  of  composing  dramatic  feuilletons, 
which  I  think  novel.  The  castigat  ridendo  mores  ought 
to  be,  according  to  my  humble  lights,  the  great  law,  I 
may  say  the  only  law  of  the  stage.  I  should  therefore 
show  myself  pitiless  for  those  works,  bred  of  imagina- 
tion, in  which  morality  has  no  part,  and  to  which 
mothers  of  families  —  " 

"Excuse  me,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "for  interrupting  you; 
but  before  allowing  you  to  take  the  trouble  to  develop 


432  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

your  poetical  ideas,  I  ought  to  tell  you  that  we  have 
already  made  arrangements  for  our  dramatic  criticism." 

"Ah!  that 's  another  thing,"  said  Phellion;  "an  hon- 
est man  must  keep  his  word." 

"Yes,"  said  Thuillier,  "we  have  our  dramatic  critic, 
little  thinking  that  you  would  offer  us  your  valuable 
assistance." 

"Well,"  said  Phellion,  suddenly  becoming  crafty,  — 
for  there  is  something  in  the  newspaper  atmosphere, 
impossible  to  say  what,  which  flies  to  the  head,  the 
bourgeois  head  especially,  —  "as  you  are  so  good  as  to 
consider  my  pen  susceptible  of  doing  you  some  service, 
perhaps  a  series  of  detached  thoughts  on  different  subjects, 
to  which  I  should  venture  to  give  the  name  of  Diversities, 
might  be  of  a  nature  to  interest  your  readers." 

"Yes,"  said  la  Peyrade,  with  a  maliciousness  that  was 
quite  lost  upon  Phellion,  "  thoughts,  especially  in  the 
style  of  la  Rochefoucauld  or  la  Bruyere,  might  do.  What 
do  you  think  yourself,  Thuillier?  " 

He  reserved  to  himself  the  right  to  leave  the  responsi- 
bility of  refusals,  as  far  as  he  could,  to  the  proprietor  of 
the  paper. 

"But  I  imagine  that  thoughts,  especially  if  detached, 
cannot  be  very  consecutive,"  said  Thuillier. 

"Evidently  not,"  replied  Phellion.  "Detached  thoughts 
imply  the  idea  of  a  great  number  of  subjects  on  which 
the  author  lets  his  pen  stray  without  the  pretension  of 
presenting  a  whole." 

4 'You  will  of  course  sign  them,"  said  la  Peyrade. 

"Oh,  no!"  replied  Phellion,  alarmed.  "I  could  not 
put  myself  on  exhibition  in  that  way." 

"Your  modesty,  which  by  the  bye,  I  understand 
and  approve,  settles  the  matter,"  said  la  Peyrade. 
"Thoughts  are  a  subject  altogether  individual,  which 
imperatively  require  to  be  personified  by  a  name.  You 
must  be  conscious  of  this  yourself.  '  Divers  Thoughts 
by  Monsieur  Three-Stars  '  says  nothing  to  the  public." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  433 

Seeing  that  Phellion  was  about  to  make  objections,' 
Thuillier,  who  was  in  a  hurry  to  begin  his  fight  with  la 
Peyrade,  cut  the  matter  short  rather  sharply :  — 

"My  dear  Phellion,"  he  said,  "I  beg  your  pardon  for 
not  being  able  to  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  your  conversa- 
tion any  longer,  but  we  have  to  talk,  la  Peyrade  and  I, 
over  a  matter  of  much  importance,  and  in  newspaper 
offices  this  devilish  time  runs  away  so  fast.  If  you  are 
willing,  we  will  postpone  the  question  to  another  day. 
Madame  Phellion  is  well,  I  trust?" 

"Perfectly  well,"  said  the  great  citizen,  rising,  and 
not  appearing  to  resent  his  dismissal.  "When  does 
your  first  number  appear?"  he  added;  "it  is  eagerly 
awaited  in  the  arrondissement." 

"To-morrow  I  think  our  confession  of  faith  will  make 
its  appearance,"  replied  Thuillier,  accompanying  him  to 
the  door.  "You  will  receive  a  copy,  my  dear  friend. 
We  shall  meet  again  soon,  I  hope.  Come  and  see  us, 
and  bring  that  manuscript;  la  Peyrade's  point  of  view 
may  be  a  little  arbitrary." 

With  this  balm  shed  upon  his  wound  Phellion  departed, 
and  Thuillier  rang  the  bell  for  the  porter. 

"Could  you  recognize  the  gentleman  who  has  just  gone 
out  the  next  time  you  see  him  ?  "  asked  Thuillier. 

"Oh,  yes,  m'sieu,  his  round  ball  of  a  head  is  too 
funny  to  forget;  besides,  it  is  Monsieur  Phellion; 
have  n't  I  opened  the  door  to  him  hundreds  of  times?  " 

"Well,  whenever  he  comes  again  neither  I  nor  Mon- 
sieur de  la  Peyrade  will  be  here.  Remember  that 's  a 
positive  rule.     Now  leave  us." 

"The  devil!  "  cried  la  Peyrade,  when  the  two  partners 
were  alone,  "how  you  manage  bores.  But  take  care; 
among  the  number  there  may  be  electors.  You  did  right 
to  tell  Phellion  you  would  send  him  a  copy  of  the  paper; 
he  has*  a  certain  importance  in  the  quarter." 

"Well,"  said  Thuillier,   "we  can't  allow  our  time  to 
28 


434  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

be  taken  up  by  all  the  dull -heads  who  come  and  offer 
their  services.  But  now  you  and  I  have  to  talk,  and 
talk  very  seriously.     Be  seated  and  listen." 

"Do  you  know,  my  dear  fellow,"  said  la  Peyrade, 
laughing,  "that  journalism  is  making  you  into  something 
very  solemn?  'Be  seated,  Cinna,' — Caesar  Augustus 
couldn't  have  said  it  otherwise." 

"Cinnas,  unfortunately,  are  more  plentiful  than  people 
think,"  replied  Thuillier. 

He  was  still  under  the  goad  of  the  promise  he  had 
made  to  Brigitte,  and  he  meant  to  fulfil  it  with  cutting 
sarcasm.  The  top  continued  the  whirling  motion  im- 
parted to  it  by  the  old  maid's  lash. 

La  Peyrade  took  a  seat  at  the  round  table.  As  he 
was  puzzled  to  know  what  was  coming,  he  endeavored  to 
seem  unconcerned,  and  picking  up  the  large  scissors  used 
for  the  loans  which  all  papers  make  from  the  columns  of 
their  brethren  of  the  press,  he  began  to  snip  up  a  sheet 
of  paper,  on  which,  in  Thuillier' s  handwriting,  was  an 
attempt  at  a  leading  article,  never  completed. 

Though  la  Pe}Trade  was  seated  and  expectant,  Thuillier 
did  not  begin  immediately;  he  went  to  the  half-opened 
door  and  called  to  the  office-boy. 

"At  home  to  no  one,"  he  said;  then  he  closed  the 
door  and  slipped  the  bolt.  "Now,"  he  said,  addressing 
la  Peyrade,  "we  will  talk.  My  dear  fellow,"  he  went 
on,  starting  with  irony,  for  he  remembered  to  have  heard 
that  nothing  was  more  confusing  to  an  adversary,  "I 
have  heard  something  that  will  give  you  pleasure.  I 
know  now  why  my  pamphlet  was  seized." 

So  saying,  he  looked  fixedly  at  la  Peyrade. 

" Parblea!  "  said  the  latter  in  a  natural  tone  of  voice, 
"it  was  seized  because  they  chose  to  seize  it.  They 
wanted  to  find,  and  they  found,  because  they  always 
find  the  things  they  want,  what  the  king's  adherents  call 
4  subversive  doctrine. '  "  * 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  435 

"No,  you  are  wrong,"  said  Thuillier;  "the  seizure  was 
planned,  concocted,  and  agreed  upon  before  publication." 

"Between  whom?  "  asked  la  Peyrade. 

"Between  those  who  wanted  to  kill  the  pamphlet,  and 
the  wretches  who  were  paid  to  betray  it." 

"Well,  in  any  case,  those  who  paid,"  said  la  Peyrade, 
"got  mighty  little  for  their  money;  for,  persecuted 
though  it  was,  I  don't  see  that  your  pamphlet  made 
much  of  a  stir." 

"Those  who  sold  may  have  done  better?  "  said  Thuil- 
lier with  redoubled  irony. 

"Those  who  sold,"  returned  la  Peyrade,  "were  the 
cleverer  of  the  two." 

"Ah,  I  know,"  said  Thuillier,  "that  you  think  a  great 
deal  of  cleverness;  but  allow  me  to  tell  you  that  the 
police,  whose  hand  I  see  in  all  this,  does  n't  usually 
throw  its  money  away." 

And  again  he  looked  fixedly  aj  la  Peyrade. 

"So,"  said  the  barrister,  without  winking,  "you  have 
discovered  that  the  police  had  plotted  in  advance  the 
smothering  of  your  pamphlet?" 

"Yes,  my  dear  fellow;  and  what  is  more,  I  know  the 
actual  sum  paid  to  the  person  who  agreed  to  carry  out 
this  honorable  plot." 

"The  person,"  said  la  Peyrade,  thinking  a  moment, — 
"perhaps  I  know  the  person:,  but  as  for  the  money,  I 
don't  know  a  word  about  that." 

"Well,  I  can  tell  you  the  amount.  Tt  was  twenty-five 
—  thousand  —  francs,"  said  Thuillier,  dwelling  on  each 
word;  "that  was  the  sum  paid  to  Judas." 

"Oh!  excuse  me,  my  dear  fellow,  but  twenty-five 
thousand  francs  is  a  good  deal  of  money.  I  don't  deny 
that  you  have  become  an  important  man;  but  you  are 
not  such  a  bugbear  to  the  government  as  to  lead  it  to 
make  such  sacrifices.  Twenty-five  thousand  francs  is  as 
much  as  would  ever  be  given  for  the  suppression  of  one 


436  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

of  those  annoying  pamphlets  about  the  Civil  list.  But  our 
financial  lucubrations  did  n't  annoy  in  that  way ;  and  such 
a  sum  borrowed  from  the  secret-service  money  for  the  mere 
pleasure  of  plaguing  you,  seems  to  me  rather  fabulous." 

"Apparently,"  said  Thuillier,  acrimoniously,  "this 
honest  go-between  had  some  interest  in  exaggerating  my 
value.  One  thing  is  very  sure;  this  monsieur  had  a 
debt  of  twenty-five  thousand  francs  which  harassed  him 
much;  and  a  short  time  before  the  seizure  this  same 
monsieur,  who  had  no  means  of  his  own,  paid  off  that 
debt;  and  unless  you  can  tell  me  where  else  he  got  the 
money,  the  inference  I  think  is  not  difficult  to  draw." 

It  was  la  Peyrade's  turn  to  look  fixedly  at  Thuillier. 

"Monsieur  Thuillier,"  he  said,  raising  his  voice,  "let 
us  get  out  of  enigmas  and  generalities;  will  you  do  me 
the  favor  to  name  that  person  ?  " 

"Well,  no,"  replied  Thuillier,  striking  his  hand  upon 
the  table,  "I  shall  not  name  him,  because  of  the  senti- 
ments of  esteem  and  affection  which  formerly  united  us; 
but  you  have  understood  me,  Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade." 

"I  ought  to  have  known,"  said  the  Provenqal,  in  a 
voice  changed  by  emotion,  "that  in  bringing  a  serpent 
to  this  place  I  should  soon  be  soiled  by  his  venom. 
Poor  fool !  do  you  not  see  that  you  have  made  yourself 
the  echo  of  Cerizet's  calumny?  " 

"Cerizet  has  nothing  to  do  with  it;  on  the  contrary,  he 
has  told  me  the  highest  good  of  you.  How  was  it,  not 
having  a  penny  the  night  before,  —  and  I  had  reason  to 
know  it,  —  that  you  were  able  to  pay  Dutocq  the  round 
sum  of  twenty-five  thousand  francs  the  next  day  ?  " 

La  Peyrade  reflected  a  moment. 

"No,"  he  said,  "it  was  not  Dutocq  who  told  you  that. 
He  is  not  a  man  to  wrestle  with  an  enemy  of  my  strength 
without  a  strong  interest  in  it.  It  was  Cerizet;  he  's  the 
infamous  calumniator,  from  whose  hands  I  wrenched  the 
lease  of  your  house  near  the  Madeleine, —  Cerizet,  whom 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  437 

in  kindness,  I  went  to  seek  on  his  dunghill  that  I  might 
give  him  the  chance  of  honorable  employment;  that  is 
the  wretch,  to  whom  a  benefit  is  only  an  encourage- 
ment to  treachery.  Tiens !  if  I  were  to  tell  you  what 
that  man  is  I  should  turn  you  sick  with  disgust;  in  the 
sphere  of  infamy  he  has  discovered  worlds." 
This  time  Thuillier  made  an  able  reply. 
UT  don't  know  anything  about  Cerizet  except  through 
you,"  he  said;  "you  introduced  him  to  me  as  a  manager, 
offering  every  guarantee;  but,  allowing  him  to  be  blacker 
than  the  devil,  and  supposing  that  this  communication 
comes  from  him,  I  don't  see,  my  friend,  that  all  that 
makes  you  any  the  whiter." 

"No  doubt  I  was  to  blame,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "for 
putting  such  a  man  into  relations  with  you;  but  we 
wanted  some  one  who  understood  journalism,  and  that 
value  he  really  had  for  us.  But  who  can  ever  sound  the 
depths  of  souls  like  his?  I  thought  him  reformed.  A 
manager,  I  said  to  myself,  is  only  a  machine;  he  can 
do  no  harm.  I  expected  to  find  him  a  man  of  straw; 
well,  I  was  mistaken,  he  will  never  be  anything  but  a 
man  of  mud." 

"All  that  is  very  fine,"  said  Thuillier,  "but  those 
twenty-five  thousand  francs  found  so  conveniently  in 
your  possession,  where  did  you  get  them  ?  That  is  the 
point  you  are  forgetting  to  explain." 

"But  do  reason  about  it,"  said  la  Peyrade;  "a  man 
of  my  character  in  the  pay  of  the  police  and  yet  so  poor 
that  I  could  not  pay  the  ten  thousand  francs  your  harpy 
of  a  sister  demanded  with  an  insolence  which  you  your- 
self witnessed  —  " 

"But,"  said  Thuillier,  "if  the  origin  of  this  money  is 
honest,  as  I  sincerely  desire  it  may  be,  what  hinders  you 
from  telling  me  how  you  got  it?  " 

"I  cannot,"  said  la  Peyrade;  "the  history  of  that 
money  is  a  secret  intrusted  to  me  professionally." 


438  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Come,  come,  you  told  me  yourself  that  the  statutes 
of  your  order  forbid  all  barristers  from  doing  business 
of  any  kind." 

uLet  us  suppose,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "that  I  have  done 
something  not  absolutely  regular;  it  would  be  strange 
after  what  I  risked,  as  you  know,  for  you,  if  you  should 
have  the  face  to  reproach  me  with  it." 

"My  poor  friend,  you  are  trying  to  shake  off  the 
hounds;  but  you  can't  make  me  lose  the  scent.  You 
wish  to  keep  your  secret;  then  keep  it.  I  am  master  of 
my  own  confidence  and  my  own  esteem ;  by  paying  you 
the  forfeit  stipulated  in  our  deed  I  take  the  newspaper 
into  my  own  hands." 

"Do  you  mean  that  you  dismiss  me?  "  cried  la  Peyrade. 
"The  money  that  you  have  put  into  the  affair,  all  your 
chances  of  election,  sacrificed  to  the  calumnies  of  such  a 
being  as  Ce'rizet!  " 

"In  the  first  place,"  said  Thuillier,  "another  editor- 
in-chief  can  be  found ;  it  is  a  true  saying  that  no  man  is 
indispensable.  As  for  election  to  the  Chamber  I  would 
rather  never  receive  it  than  owe  it  to  the  help  of  one 
who  —  " 

"Go  on,"  said  la  Peyrade,  seeing  that  Thuillier  hesi- 
tated, "or  rather,  no,  be  silent,  for  you  will  presently 
blush  for  your  suspicions  and  ask  my  pardon  humbly." 

By  this  time  la  Peyrade  saw  that  without  a  confession 
to  which  he  must  compel  himself,  the  influence  and  the 
future  he  had  just  recovered  would  be  cut  from  under  his 
feet.     Resuming  his  speech  he  said,  solemnly:  — 

"You  will  remember,  my  friend,  that  you  were  piti- 
less, and,  by  subjecting  me  to  a  species  of  moral  torture, 
you  have  forced  me  to  reveal  to  you  a  secret  that  is  not 
mine." 

"Go  on,"  said  Thuillier,  "I  take  the  whole  responsi- 
bility upon  myself.  Make  me  see  the  truth  clearly  in 
this  darkness,  and  if  I  have  done  you  wrong  I  will  be  the 
first  to  say  so." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  439 

"Well,"  said  la  Peyrade,  " those  twenty-five  thousand 
francs  are  the  savings  of  a  servant-woman  who  came  to 
me  and  asked  me  to  take  them  and  to  pay  her  interest." 

"A  servant  with  twenty-five  thousand  francs  of  sav- 
ings! Nonsense;  she  must  serve  in  monstrously  rich 
houses." 

4 'On  the  contrary,  she  is  the  one  servant  of  an  infirm 
old  savant;  and  it  was  on  account  of  the  discrepancy 
which  strikes  your  mind  that  she  wanted  to  put  her 
money  in  my  hands  as  a  sort  of  trustee." 

"Bless  me!  my  friend,"  said  Thuillier,  flippantly, 
"you  said  we  were  in  want  of  a  romance-feuilletonist; 
but  really,  after  this,  I  sha'  n't  be  uneasy.  Here  's 
imagination  for  you!" 

"What?"  said  la  Peyrade,  angrily,  "you  don't  believe 
me?" 

"No,  I  do  not  believe  you.  Twenty-five  thousand 
francs  savings  in  the  service  of  an  old  savant !  that  is 
about  as  believable  as  the  officer  of  La  Dame  Blanche 
buying  a  chateau  with  his  pay." 

"But  if  I  prove  to  you  the  truth  of  my  words;  if  I  let 
you  put  your  finger  upon  it?  " 

"In  that  case,  like  Saint  Thomas,  I  shall  lower  my 
flag  before  the  evidence.  Meanwhile  you  must  permit 
me,  my  noble  friend,  to  wait  until  you  offer  me  that 
proof." 

Thuillier  felt  really  superb. 

"I  'd  give  a  hundred  francs,"  he  said  to  himself,  "if 
Brigitte  could  have  been  here  and  heard  me  impeach 
him." 

"Well,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "suppose  that  without  leav- 
ing this  office,  and  by  means  of  a  note  which  you  shall 
read,  I  bring  into  your  presence  the  person  from  whom  I 
received  the  money;  if  she  confirms  what  I  say  will  you 
believe  me?  " 

This  proposal  and  the  assurance  with  which  it  was 
made  rather  staggered  Thuillier. 


440  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"I  shall  know  what  to  do  when  the  time  comes,"  he 
replied,  changing  his  tone.  "But  this  must  be  done  at 
once,  now,  here." 

"I  said,  without  leaving  this  otlice.  I  should  think 
that  was  clear  enough." 

"And  who  will  carry  the  note  you  write?"  asked 
Thuillier,  believing  that  by  thus  examining  every  detail 
he  was  giving  proofs  of  amazing  perspicacity. 

"Carry  the  note!  why,  your  own  porter  of  course," 
replied  la  Peyrade;    "you  can  send  him  yourself." 

"Then  write  it,"  said  Thuillier,  determined  to  push 
him  to  the  wall. 

La  Peyrade  took  a  sheet  of  paper  with  the  new  heading 
and  wrote  as  follows,  reading  the  note  aloud :  — 

Madame  Lambert  is  requested  to  call  at  once,  on  urgent 
business,  at  the  office  of  the  "  j£cho  de  la  Bievre,"  rue  Saint- 
Dominique-d'Enfer.  The  bearer  of  this  note  will  conduct  her. 
She  is  awaited  impatiently  by  her  devoted  servant, 

TlIE*ODOSE    DE    LA    PEYRADE. 

"There,  will  that  suit  you?  "  said  the  barrister,  pass- 
ing the  paper  to  Thuillier. 

"Perfectly,"  replied  Thuillier,  taking  the  precaution 
to  fold  the  letter  himself  and  seal  it.  "Put  the  address," 
he  added. 

Then  he  rang  the  bell  for  the  porter. 

"You  will  carry  this  letter  to  its  address,"  he  said  to 
the  man,  "and  bring  back  with  you  the  person  named. 
But  will  she  be  there?"  he  asked,  on  reflection. 

"It  is  more  than  probable,"  replied  la  Peyrade;  "in 
any  case,  neither  you  nor  I  will  leave  this  room  until  she 
comes.     This  matter  must  be  cleared  up." 

"Then  go!"  said  Thuillier  to  the  porter,  in  a  theatrical 
tone. 

When  they  were  alone,  la  Peyrade  took  up  a  newspaper 
and  appeared  to  be  absorbed  in  its  perusal. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie,  441 

Thuillier,  beginning  to  get  uneasy  as  to  the  upshot  of 
the  affair,  regretted  that  he  had  not  done  something  the 
idea  of  which  had  come  to  him  just  too  late. 

"Yes,  I  ought,"  he  said  to  himself,  "to  have  torn  up 
that  letter,  and  not  have  driven  him  to  prove  his  words." 

Wishing  to  do  something  that  might  look  like  retain- 
ing la  Peyrade  in  the  position  of  which  he  had  threat- 
ened to  deprive  him,  he  remarked  presently :  — 

"By  the  bye,  I  have  just  come  from  the  printing- 
office;  the  new  type  has  arrived,  and  I  think  we  might 
make  our  first  appearance  to-morrow." 

La  Peyrade  did  not  answer ;  but  he  got  up  and  took 
his  paper  nearer  to  the  window. 

"He  is  sulky,"  thought  Thuillier,  "and  if  he  is  inno- 
cent, he  may  well  be.  But,  after  all,  why  did  he  ever 
bring  a  man  like  that  Cerizet  here?  " 

Then  to  hide  his  embarrassment  and  the  preoccupation 
of  his  mind,  he  sat  down  before  the  editor's  table,  took 
a  sheet  of  the  head-lined  paper  and  made  himself  write  a 
letter. 

Presently  la  Peyrade  returned  to  the  table  and  sitting 
down,  took  another  sheet  and  with  the  feverish  rapidity 
of  a  man  stirred  by  some  emotion  he  drove  his  pen  over 
the  paper. 

From  the  corner  of  his  eye,  Thuillier  tried  hard  to  see 
what  la  Peyrade  was  writing,  and  noticing  that  his 
sentences  were  separated  by  numbers  placed  between 
brackets,  he  said:  — 

" Tiens  !  are  you  drawing  up  a  parliamentary  law?  " 

"Yes,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  "  the  law  of  the  vanquished." 

Soon  after  this,  the  porter  opened  the  door  and  intro- 
duced Madame  Lambert,  whom  he  had  found  at  home, 
and  who  arrived  looking  rather  frightened. 

"You  are  Madame  Lambert?"  asked  Thuillier,  magis- 
terially. 

"Yes,  monsieur,"  said  the  woman,  in  an  anxious  voice. 


442  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 

After  requesting  her  to  be  seated  and  noticing  that 
the  porter  was  still  there  as  if  awaiting  further  orders  he 
said  to  the  man :  — 

"That  will  do;  you  may  go;  and  don't  let  any  one 
disturb  us." 

The  gravity  and  the  lordly  tone  assumed  by  Thuillier 
only  increased  Madame  Lambert's  uneasiness.  She 
came  expecting  to  see  only  la  Peyrade,  and  she  found 
herself  received  by  an  unknown  man  with  a  haughty 
manner,  while  the  barrister,  who  had  merely  bowed  to 
her,  said  not  a  word ;  moreover,  the  scene  took  place  in 
a  newspaper  office,  and  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  to 
pious  persons  especially  all  that  relates  to  the  press  is 
infernal  and  diabolical. 

"Well,"  said  Thuillier  to  the  barrister,  "it  seems  to 
me  that  nothing  hinders  you  from  explaining  to  madame 
why  you  have  sent  for  her." 

In  order  to  leave  no  loophole  for  suspicion  in  Thuil- 
lier's  mind  la  Peyrade  knew  that  he  must  put  his  ques- 
tion bluntly  and  without  the  slightest  preparation;  he 
therefore  said  to  her  ex  abrupto:  — 

"We  wish  to  ask  you,  madame,  if  it  is  not  true  that 
about  two  and  a  half  months  ago  you  placed  in  my 
hands,  subject  to  interest,  the  sum,  in  round  numbers, 
of  twenty-five  thousand  francs." 

Though  she  felt  the  eyes  of  Thuillier  and  those  of  la 
Peyrade  upon  her,  Madame  Lambert,  under  the  shock  of 
this  question  fired  at  her  point-blank,  could  not  restrain 
a  start. 

"Heavens!  "  she  exclaimed,  "twenty-five  thousand 
francs!  and  where  should  I  get  such  a  sum  as  that?" 

La  Peyrade  gave  no  sign  on  his  face  of  the  vexation 
he  might  be  supposed  to  feel.  As  for  Thuillier,  who 
now  looked  at  him  with  sorrowful  commiseration,  he 
merely  said:  — 

"You  see,  my  friend!  " 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  443 

uSo,"  resumed  la  Peyrade,  "you  are  very  certain  that 
you  did  not  place  in  my  hands  the  sum  of  twenty-five 
thousand  francs;    you  declare  this,  you  aifirm  it?" 

"Why,  monsieur!  did  you  ever  hear  of  such  a  sum  as 
that  in  the  pocket  of  a  poor  woman  like  me?  The  little 
that  I  had,  as  everybody  knows,  has  gone  to  eke  out  the 
housekeeping  of  that  poor  dear  gentleman  whose  servant 
I  have  been  for  more  than  twenty  years." 

"This,"  said  Thuillier,  pompously,  "seems  to  me 
categorical." 

La  Peyrade  still  did  not  show  the  slightest  sign  of 
annoyance;  on  the  contrary,  he  seemed  to  be  playing 
into  Thuillier's  hand. 

"You  hear,  my  dear  Thuillier,"  he  said,  "and  if  ne- 
cessary I  shall  call  for  your  testimony,  that  madame  here 
declares  that  she  did  not  possess  twenty-five  thousand 
francs  and  could  not  therefore  have  placed  them  in  my 
hands.  Now,  as  the  notary  Dupuis,  in  whose  hands  I 
fancied  I  had  placed  them,  left  Paris  this  morning  for 
Brussels  carrying  with  him  the  money  of  all  his  clients, 
I  have  no  account  with  madame,  by  her  own  showing, 
and  the  absconding  of  the  notary  —  " 

"Has  the  notary  Dupuis  absconded?  "  screamed 
Madame  Lambert,  driven  by  this  dreadful  news  entirely 
out  of  her  usual  tones  of  dulcet  sweetness  and  Christian 
resignation.  "Ah,  the  villain!  it  was  only  this  morn- 
ing that  he  was  taking  the  sacrament  at  Saint-Jacques 
du  Haut-Pas." 

"  To  pray  for  a  safe  journey,  probably,"  said  la  Peyrade. 

"Monsieur  talks  lightly  enough,"  continued  Madame 
Lambert,  "though  that  brigand  has  carried  off  my  sav- 
ings. But  I .  gave  them  to  monsieur,  and  monsieur  is 
answerable  to  me  for  them ;  he  is  the  only  one  I  know 
in  this  transaction." 

"Hey?"  said  la  Peyrade  to  Thuillier,  pointing  to 
Madame  Lambert,  whose  whole  demeanor  had  something 


444  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

of  the  mother-wolf  suddenly  bereft  of  her  cubs;  uis  that 
nature?  tell  me!  Do  you  think  now  that  madame  and  I 
are  playing  a  comedy  for  your  benefit?  " 

"I  am  thunderstruck  at  Cerizet's  audacity,"  said 
Thuillier.  "I  am  overwhelmed  with  my  own  stupidity; 
there  is  nothing  for  me  to  do  but  to  submit  myself 
entirely  to  your  discretion." 

"Madame,"  said  la  Peyrade,  gayly,  "excuse  me  for 
thus  frightening  you;  the  notary  Dupuis  is  still  a  very 
saintly  man,  and  quite  incapable  of  doing  an  injury  to 
his  clients.  As  for  monsieur  here,  it  was  necessary  that 
I  should  prove  to  him  that  you  had  really  placed  that 
money  in  my  hands;  he  is,  however,  another  myself, 
and  your  secret,  though  known  to  him,  is  as  safe  as  jt  is 
with  me." 

"Oh,  very  good,  monsieur  1"  said  Madame  Lambert. 
"I  suppose  these  gentlemen  have  no  further  need  of  me?" 

"No,  my  dear  madame,  and  I  beg  you  to  pardon  me 
for  the  little  terror  I  was  compelled  to  occasion  you." 

Madame  Lambert  turned  to  leave  the  "oom  with  all  the 
appearance  of  respectful  humility,  but  when  she  reached 
the  door,  she  retraced  her  steps,  and  coming  close  to  la 
Peyrade  said,  in  her  smoothest  tones :  — 

"When  does  monsieur  expect  to  be  able  to  refund  me 
that  money?  " 

"But  I  told  you,"  said  la  Peyrade,  stiffly,  "that 
notaries  never  return  on  demand  the  money  placed  in 
their  hands." 

"Does  monsieur  think  that  if  I  went  to  see  Monsieur 
Dupuis  himself  and  asked  him  —  " 

"I  think,"  said  la  Peyrade,  interrupting  her,  "that 
you  would  do  a  most  ridiculous  thing.  He  received  the 
money  from  me  in  my  own  name,  as  you  requested,  and 
he  knows  only  me  in  the  matter." 

"Then  monsieur  will  be  so  kind,  will  he  not,  as  to 
get  back  that  money  for  me  as  soon  as  possible?     I  am 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  445 

sure  I  would  not  wish  to  press  monsieur,  but  in  two  or 
three  months  from  now  I  may  want  it;  1  have  heard  of  a 
little  property  it  would  suit  me  to  buy." 

"Very  good,  Madame  Lambert,"  said  la  Peyrade, 
with  well-concealed  irritation,  "  it  shall  be  done  as  you 
wish;  and  in  less  time,  perhaps,  than  you  have  stated  I 
shall  hope  to  return  your  money  to  you." 

"That  won't  inconvenience  monsieur,  I  trust,"  said 
the  woman;  "he  told  me  that  at  the  first  indiscretion  I 
committed  —  " 

"Yes,  yes,  that  is  all  understood,"  said  la  Peyrade, 
interrupting  her. 

"Then  I  have  the  honor  to  be  the  very  humble  servant 
of  these  gentlemen,"  said  Madame  Lambert,  now  depart- 
ing definitively. 

"You  see,  my  friend,  the  trouble  you  have  got  me 
into,"  said  la  Peyrade  to  Thuillier  as  soon  as  they  were 
alone,  "and  to  what  I  am  exposed  by  my  kindness  in 
satisfying  your  diseased  mind.  That  debt  was  dormant; 
it  was  in  a  chronic  state;  and  you  have  waked  it  up  and 
made  it  acute.  The  woman  brought  me  the  money  and 
insisted  on  my  keeping  it,  at  a  good  rate  of  interest.  I 
refused  at  first;  then  I  agreed  to  place  it  in  Dupuis's 
hands,  explaining  to  her  that  it  could  n't  be  withdrawn 
at  once;  but  subsequently,  when  Dutocq  pressed  me,  I 
decided,   after  all,  to  keep  it  myself." 

"I  am  dreadfully  sorry,  dear  friend,  for  my  silly 
credulity.  But  don't  be  uneasy  about  the  exactions  of 
that  woman ;  we  will  manage  to  arrange  all  that,  even  if 
I  have  to  make  you  an  advance  upon  Celeste's  dot." 

"My  excellent  friend,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  that  we  should  talk  over  our  private 
arrangements;  to  you  tell  the  truth,  I  have  no  fancy  for 
being  hauled  up  every  morning  and  questioned  as  to  my 
conduct.  Just  now,  while  waiting  for  that  woman,  I 
drew  up  a  little  agreement,  which  you  and  I  will  discuss 


446  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

and  sign,  if  you  please,  before  the  first  number  of  the 
paper  is  issued." 

"But,"  said  Thuillier,  "our  deed  of  partnership  seems 
to  me  to  settle  —  " 

" — that  by  a  paltry  forfeit  of  five  thousand  francs,  as 
stated  in  Article  14,"  interrupted  Theodose,  "you  can 
put  me,  when  you  choose,  out  of  doors.  No,  I  thank 
you!  After  my  experience  to-day,  I  want  some  better 
security  than  that." 

At  this  moment  Ce'rizet  with  a  lively  and  all-conquer- 
ing air,  entered  the  room. 

"My  masters!"  he  exclaimed,  "I've  brought  the 
money;    and  we  can  now  sign  the  bond." 

Then,  remarking  that  his  news  was  received  with 
extreme  coldness,  he  added :  — 

"Well?  what  is  it?" 

"It  is  this,"  replied  Thuillier:  "I  refuse  to  be  asso- 
ciated with  double-face  men  and  calumniators.  We 
have  no  need  of  you  or  your  money;  and  I  request 
you  not  to  honor  these  precincts  any  longer  with  your 
presence." 

"Dear!  dear!  dear!"  said  Ce'rizet;  "so  papa  Thuillier 
has  let  the  wool  be  pulled  over  his  eyes  again !  " 

" Leave  the  room!  "  said  Thuillier;  "you  have  nothing 
more  to  do  here." 

"Hey,  my  boy!  "  said  Ce'rizet,  turning  to  la  Peyrade, 
"so  you  've  twisted  the  old  bourgeois  round  your  finger 
again?  Well,  well,  no  matter!  I  think  you  are  making 
a  mistake  not  to  go  and  see  du  Portail,  and  I  shall  tell 
him  —  " 

"Leave  this  house!"  cried  Thuillier,  in  a  threatening 
tone. 

"Please  remember,  my  dear  monsieur,  that  I  never 
asked  you  to  employ  me;  I  was  well  enough  off  before 
you  sent  for  me,  and  I  shall  be  after.  But  I  '11  give  you 
a  piece  of   advice:   don't  pay  the  twenty-five  thousand 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  447 

francs  out  of  your  own  pocket,  for  that 's  hanging  to 
your  nose." 

So  saying,  Cerizet  put  his  thirty-three  thousand  francs 
in  banknotes  back  into  his  wallet,  took  his  hat  from  the 
table,  carefully  smoothed  the  nap  with  his  forearm  and 
departed. 

Thuillier  had  been  led  by  Cerizet  into  what  proved  to 
be  a  most  disastrous  campaign.  Now  become  the  hum- 
ble servant  of  la  Peyrade,  he  was  forced  to  accept  his 
conditions,  which  were  as  follows:  five  hundred  francs 
a  month  for  la  Peyrade's  services  in  general;  his  editor- 
ship of  the  paper  to  be  paid  at  the  rate  of  fifty  francs 
a  column, —  which  was  simply  enormous,  considering  the 
small  size  of  the  sheet;  a  binding  pledge  to  continue 
the  publication  of  the  paper  for  six  months,  under  pain 
of  the  forfeiture  of  fifteen  thousand  francs;  an  absolute 
omnipotence  in  the  duties  of  editor-in-chief, —  that  is  to 
say,  the  sovereign  right  of  inserting,  controlling,  and 
rejecting  all  articles  without  being  called  to  explain  the 
reasons  of  his  action, —  such  were  the  stipulations  of 
a  treaty  in  duplicate  made  openly,  "in  good  faith," 
between  the  contracting  parties.  But,  in  virtue  of 
another  and  secret  agreement,  Thuillier  gave  security 
for  the  payment  of  the  twenty-five  thousand  francs  for 
which  la  Peyrade  was  accountable  to  Madame  Lambert, 
binding  the  said  Sieur  de  la  Peyrade,  in  case  the  payment 
were  required  before  his  marriage  with  Mademoiselle 
Celeste  Colleville  could  take  place,  to  acknowledge  the 
receipt  of  said  sum  advanced  upon  the  dowry. 

Matters  being  thus  arranged  and  accepted  by  the 
candidate,  who  saw  no  chance  of  election  if  he  lost  la 
Peyrade,  Thuillier  was  seized  with  a  happy  thought. 
He  went  to  the  Cirque-Olympique,  where  he  remembered 
to  have  seen  in  the  ticket-office  a  former  employe  in  his 
office  at  the  ministry  of  finance, —  a  man  named  Fleury; 
to  whom  he  proposed  the  post  of  manager.     Fleury,  being 


448  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

an  old  soldier,  a  good  shot,  and  a  skilful  fencer,  would 
certainly  make  himself  an  object  of  respect  in  a  news- 
paper office.  The  working-staff  of  the  paper  being  thus 
reconstituted,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  co-editors  or 
reporters  to  be  added  later,  but  whom  la  Peyrade,  thanks 
to  the  facility  of  his  pen,  was  able  for  the  present  to  do 
without,  the  first  number  of  the  new  paper  was  launched 
upon  the  world. 

Thuillier  now  recommenced  the  explorations  about 
Paris  which  we  saw  him  make  on  the  publication  of  his 
pamphlet.  Entering  all  reading-rooms  and  cafes,  he 
asked  for  the  "Echo  de  la  Bievre,"  and  when  informed, 
alas,  very  frequently,  that  the  paper  was  unknown  in 
this  or  that  establishment,  "It  is  incredible!  "  he  would 
exclaim,  "that  a  house  which  respects  itself  does  not 
take  such  a  widely  known  paper." 

On  that,  he  departed  disdainfully,  not  observing  that 
in  many  places,  where  this  ancient  trick  of  commercial 
travellers  was  well  understood,  they  were  laughing 
behind  his  back. 

The  evening  of  the  day  when  the  inauguration  num- 
ber containing  the  "profession  of  faith  "  appeared, 
Brigitte's  salon,  although  the  day  was  not  Sunday,  was 
filled  with  visitors.  Reconciled  to  la  Peyrade,  whom 
her  brother  had  brought  home  to  dinner,  the  old  maid 
went  so  far  as  to  tell  him  that,  without  flattery,  she 
thought  his  leading  article  was  a  famous  hit.  For  that 
matter,  all  the  guests  as  they  arrived,  reported  that  the 
public  seemed  enchanted  with  the  first  number  of  the 
new  journal. 

The  public!  everybody  knows  what  that  is.  To  every 
man  who  launches  a  bit  of  writing  into  the  world,  the 
public  consists  of  five  or  six  intimates  who  cannot, 
without  offending  the  author  avoid  knowing  something 
more  or  less  of  his  lucubrations. 

"As    for    me!  "   cried    Colleville,    "I   can    truthfully 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  449 

declare  that  it   is  the  first  political  article  I  ever  read 
that  didn't  send  me  to  sleep." 

"It  is  certain,"  said  Phellion,  "thai  the  leading  arti- 
cle seems  to  me  to  be  stamped  with  vigor  joined  to  an 
atticism  which  we  may  seek  in  vain  in  the  columns  of 
the  other  public  prints." 

"Yes,"  said  Dutocq,  "the  matter  is  very  well  pre- 
sented; and  besides,  there's  a  turn  of  phrase,  a  clever 
diction,  that  does  n't  belong  to  everybody.  However, 
we  must  wait  and  see  how  it  keeps  on.  I  fancy  that 
to-morrow  the  i  Echo  de  la  Bievre  '  will  be  strongly 
attacked  by  the  other  papers." 

"Parbleu!"  cried  Thuillier,  "that's  what  we  are 
hoping  for;  and  if  the  government  would  only  do  us  the 
favor  to  seize  us  —  " 

"No,  thank  you,"  said  Fleury,  whom  Thuillier  had 
also  brought  home  to  dinner,  "I  don't  want  to  enter 
upon  those  functions  at  first." 

"Seized!"  said  Dutocq,  "oh,  you  won't  be  seized; 
but  I  think  the  ministerial  journals  will  fire  a  broadside 
at  you."  x 

The  next  day  Thuillier  was  at  the  office  as  early  as 
eight  o'clock,  in  order  to  be  the  first  to  receive  that 
formidable  salvo.  After  looking  through  every  morning 
paper  he  was  forced  to  admit  that  there  was  no  more 
mention  of  the  "Echo  de  la  Bievre"  than  if  it  didn't 
exist.  When  la  Peyrade  arrived  he  found  his  unhappy 
friend  in  a  state  of  consternation. 

"Does  that  surprise  you?"  said  the  Provencal,  tran- 
quilly. "I  let  you  enjoy  yesterday  your  hopes  of  a  hot 
engagement  with  the  press ;  but  I  knew  myself  that  in 
all  probability  there  would  n't  be  the  slightest  mention 
of  us  in  to-day's  papers.  Against  every  paper  which 
makes  its  debut  with  some  distinction,  there  's  always 
a  two  weeks',  sometimes  a  two  months'  conspiracy  of 
silence." 

29 


450  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

''Conspiracy  of  silence!  "  echoed  Thuillier,  with  admi- 
ration. 

He  did  not  know  what  it  meant,  but  the  words  had  a 
grandeur  and  a  something  that  appealed  to  his  imagi- 
nation. After  la  Peyrade  had  explained  to  him  that  by 
"conspiracy  of  silence"  was  meant  the  agreement  of 
existing  journals  to  make  no  mention  of  new-comers 
lest  such  notice  should  serve  to  advertise  them,  Thuil- 
lier's mind  was  hardly  better  satisfied  than  it  had  been 
by  the  pompous  flow  of  the  words.  The  bourgeois  is 
born  so;  words  are  coins  which  he  takes  and  passes 
without  question.  For  a  word,  he  will  excite  himself  or 
calm  down,  insult  or  applaud.  With  a  word,  he  can  be 
brought  to  make  a  revolution  and  overturn  a  government 
of  his  own  choice. 

The  paper,  however,  was  only  a  means ;  the  object  was 
Thuillier's  election.  This  was  insinuated  rather  than 
stated  in  the  first  numbers.  But  one  morning,  in  the 
columns  of  the  "Jilcho,"  appeared  a  letter  from  several 
electors  thanking  their  delegate  to  the  municipal  council 
for  the  firm  and  frankly  liberal  attitude  which  he  had 
taken  on  all  questions  of  local  interests.  "This  firm- 
ness," said  the  letter,  "had  brought  down  upon  him  the 
persecution  of  the  government,  which,  towed  at  the  heels 
of  foreigners,  had  sacrificed  Poland  and  sold  itself  to 
England.  The  arrondissement  needed  a  man  of  such 
tried  convictions  to  represent  it  in  the  Chamber, —  a  man 
holding  high  and  firm  the  banner  of  dynastic  opposition, 
a  man  who  would  be,  by  the  mere  signification  of  his 
name,  a  stern  lesson  given  to  the  authorities." 

Enforced  by  an  able  commentary  from  la  Peyrade, 
this  letter  was  signed  by  Barbet  and  Metivier  and  all 
Brigitte's  tradesmen  (whom,  in  view  of  the  election  she 
had  continued  to  employ  since  her  emigration);  also  by 
the  family  doctor  and  apothecary,  and  by  Thuillier's 
builder,    and   Barniol,  Phellion's   son-in-law,   who   pro- 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  451 

fessed  to  hold  rather  "advanced "  political  opinions. 
As  for  Phellion  himself,  he  thought  the  wording  of  the 
letter  not  altogether  circumspect,  and  —  always  without 
fear  as  without  reproach  —  however  much  he  might  ex- 
pect that  this  refusal  would  injure  his  son  in  his  dearest 
interests,  he  bravely  refrained  from  signing  it. 

This  trial  kite  had  the  happiest  effect.  The  ten  or 
a  dozen  names  thus  put  forward  were  considered  to 
express  the  will  of  the  electors  and  were  called  "the 
voice  of  the  quarter."  Thus  Thuillier's  candidacy  made 
from  the  start  such  rapid  progress  that  Minard  hesitated 
to  put  his  own  claims  in  opposition. 

Delighted  now  with  the  course  of  events,  Brigitte  was 
the  first  to  say  that  the  time  had  come  to  attend  to  the 
marriage,  and  Thuillier  was  all  the  more  ready  to  agree 
because,  from  day  to  day,  he  feared  he  might  be  called 
upon  to  pay  the  twenty-five  thousand  francs  to  Madame 
Lambert  for  which  he  had  pledged  himself.  A  thorough 
explanation  now  took  place  between  la  Peyrade  and  the 
old  maid.  She  told  him  honestly  of  the  fear  she  felt  as 
to  the  maintenance  of  her  sovereign  authority  when  a 
son-in-law  of  his  mind  and  character  was  established  in 
the  household. 

"If  we,"  she  ended  by  saying,  "are  to  oppose  each 
other  for  the  rest  of  our  days,  it  would  be  much  bet- 
ter, from  the  beginning,  to  make  two  households;  we 
should  n't  be  the  less  friends  for  that." 

La  Peyrade  replied  that  nothing  under  the  sun  would 
induce  him  to  consent  to  such  a  plan;  on  the  contrary,  he 
regarded  as  among  his  happiest  prospects  for  the  future 
the  security  he  should  feel  about  the  wise  management 
of  the  material  affairs  of  the  home  in  such  hands  as  hers. 
He  should  have  enough  to  do  in  the  management  of  out- 
side interests,  and  he  could  not  comprehend,  for  his 
part,  how  she  could  suppose  he  had  ever  had  the  thought 
of  interfering  in  matters  that  were  absolutely  out  of  his 
province.     In  short,  he  reassured  her  so  completely  that 


452  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

she  urged  him  to  take  immediate  steps  for  the  publica- 
tion of  the  banns  and  the  signature  of  the  marriage  con- 
tract,—  declaring  that  she  reserved  to  herself  all  the 
preparations  relating  to  Celeste,  whose  acceptance  of  this 
sudden  conclusion  she  pledged  herself  to  secure. 

"My  dear  child,"  she  said  to  Celeste  the  next  morn- 
ing, "I  think  you  have  given  up  all  idea  of  *being  Felix 
Phellion's  wife.  In  the  first  place,  he  is  more  of  ail 
atheist  than  ever,  and,  besides,  you  must  have  noticed 
yourself  that  his  mind  is  quite  shaky.  You  have  seen 
at  Madame  Minard's  that  Madame  Marmus,  who  mar- 
ried a  savant,  officer  of  the  Legion  of  honor,  and  member 
of  the  Institute.  There's  not  a  more  unhappy  woman; 
her  husband  has  taken  her  to  live  behind  the  Luxem- 
bourg, in  the  rue  Duguay-Trouin,  a  street  that  is  neither 
paved  nor  lighted.  When  he  goes  out,  he  does  n't  know 
where  he  is  going;  he  gets  to  the  Champ  de  Mars  when 
he  wants  to  go  to  the  Faubourg  Poissoniere;  he  isn't 
even  capable  of  giving  his  address  to  the  driver  of  a 
street  cab;  and  he  is  so  absent-minded  he  could  n't  tell 
if  it  were  before  dinner  or  after.  You  can  imagine  what 
sort  of  time  a  woman  must  have  with  a  man  whose  nose 
is  always  at  a  telescope  snuffing  stars." 

"But  Felix,"  said  Celeste,  "is  not  as  absent-minded 
as  that." 

"Of  course  not,  because  he  is  younger;  but  with  years 
his  absent-mindedness  and  his  atheism  will  both  increase. 
We  have  therefore  decided  that  he  is  not  the  husband 
you  want,  and  we  all,  your  mother,  father,  Thuillier  and 
myself,  have  determined  that  you  shall  take  la  Peyrade, 
a  man  of  the  world,  who  will  make  his  way,  and  one 
who  has  done  us  great  services  in  the  past,  and  who  will, 
moreover,  make  your  godfather  deputy.  We  are  dis- 
posed to  give  yon,  in  consideration  of  him,  a  much  larger 
dot  than  we  should  give  to  any  other  husband.  So,  my 
dear,  it  is  settled ;  the  banns  are  to  be  published  imme- 
diately, and  this  day  week  we  sign  the  contract.     There  's 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  453 

to  be  a  great  dinner  for  the  family  and  intimates,  and 
after  that  a  reception,  at  which  the  contract  will  be 
signed  and  your  trousseau  and  corbeille  exhibited.  As 
I  take  all  that  into  my  own  hands  I  '11  answer  for  it  that 
everything  shall  be  of  the  best  kind;  especially  if  you 
are  not  babyish,  and  give  in  pleasantly  to  our  ideas." 

"But,  aunt  Brigitte,"  began  Celeste,  timidly. 

"There's  no  'but,'  in  the  matter,"  said  the  old  maid, 
imperiously;  "it  is  all  arranged,  and  will  be  carried  out, 
unless,  mademoiselle,  you  pretend  to  have  more  wisdom 
than  your  elders." 

"I  will  do  as  you  choose,  aunt,"  replied  Celeste,  feel- 
ing as  if  a  thunder-cloud  had  burst  upon  her  head,  and 
knowing  but  too  well  she  had  no  power  to  struggle  against 
the  iron  will  which  had  just  pronounced  her  doom. 

She  went  at  once  to  pour  her  sorrows  into  Madame 
Thuillier's  soul;  but  when  she  heard  her  godmother 
advising  patience  and  resignation  the  poor  child  felt 
that  from  that  feeble  quarter  she  could  get  no  help  for 
even  the  slightest  effort  of  resistance,  and  that  her 
sacrifice  was  virtually  accomplished. ^ 

Precipitating  herself  with  a  sort  of  frenzy  into  the 
new  element  of  activity  thus  introduced  into  her  life, 
Brigitte  took  the  field  in  the  making  of  the  trousseau 
and  the  purchase  of  the  corbeille.  Like  many  misers, 
who  on  great  occasions  come  out  of  their  habits  and 
their  nature,  the  old  maid  now  thought  nothing  too 
good  for  her  purpose;  and  she  flung  her  money  about 
so  lavishly  that  until  the  day  appointed  for  the  sign- 
ing of  the  contract,  the  jeweller,  dressmaker,  milliner, 
lingere,  etc.  (all  chosen  from  the  best  establishments  in 
Paris),  seemed  to  occupy  the  house. 

"It  is  like  a  procession,"  said  Josephine,  the  cook, 
admiringly,  to  Francoise,  the  Minards'  maid;  "the  bell 
never  stops  ringing  from  morning  till  night." 


454  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


XII. 


A    STAR. 


The  dinner  on  the  great  occasion  was  ordered  from 
Chabot  and  Potel,  and  not  from  Chevet,  by#which  act 
Brigitte  intended  to  prove  her  initiative  and  her  emanci- 
pation from  the  late  Madame  de  Godollo.  The  invited 
guests  were  as  follows:  three  Collevilles,  including  the 
bride,  la  Peyrade  the  groom,  Dutocq  and  Fleury,  whom 
he  had  asked  to  be  his  witnesses,  the  extremely  limited 
number  of  his  relatives  leaving  him  no  choice,  Minard 
and  Rabourdin,  chosen  as  witnesses  for  Celeste,  Madame 
and  Mademoiselle  Minard  and  Minard  junior,  two  of 
Thuillier's  colleagues  in  the  Council-general ;  the  notary 
Dupuis,  charged  with  the  duty  of  drawing  up  the  con- 
tract, and  lastly,  the  Abba  Gondrin,  director  of  the  con- 
sciences of  Madame  Thuillier  and  Celeste,  who  was  to 
give  the  nuptial  blessing. 

The  latter  was  the  former  vicar  of  Saint-Jacques  du 
Haut-Pas,  whose  great  refinement  of  manner  and  gift  of 
preaching  had  induced  the  archbishop  to  remove  him 
from  the  humble  parish  where  his  career  had  begun  to 
the  aristocratic  church  of  the  Madeleine.  Since  Madame 
Thuillier  and  Celeste  had  again  become  his  parishioners, 
the  young  abbe  visited  them  occasionally,  and  Thuillier, 
who  had  gone  to  him  to  explain,  after  his  own  fashion, 
the  suitableness  of  the  choice  made  for  Celeste  in  the 
person  of  la  Peyrade  (taking  pains  as  he  did  so  to  cast 
reflections  on  the  religious  opinions  of  Felix  Phellion), 
had  easily  led  him  to  contribute  by  his  persuasive  words 
to  the  resignation  of  the  victim. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  455 

When  the  time  came  to  sit  down  to  table  three  guests 
were  missing,  —  two  Minards,  father  and  son,  and  the 
notary  Dupuis.  The  latter  had  written  a  note  to  Thuillier 
in  the  morning,  excusing  himself  from  the  dinner,  but 
saying  that  at  nine  o'clock  precisely  he  would  bring  the 
contract  and  place  himself  at  the  orders  of  Mademoiselle 
Thuillier.  As  for  Julien  Minard,  his  mother  excused 
him  as  being  confined  to  his  room  with  a  sore-throat. 
The  absence  of  Minard  senior  remained  unexplained,  but 
Madame  Minard  insisted  that  they  should  sit  clown  to 
table  without  him;  which  was  done,  Brigitte  ordering 
that  the  soup  be  kept,  hot  for  him,  because  in  the  bour- 
geois code  of  manners  and  customs  a  dinner  without  soup 
is  no  dinner  at  all. 

The  repast  was  far  from  gay,  and  though  the  fare  was 
better,  the  vivacity  and  warmth  of  the  conversation  was 
far,  indeed,  from  that  of  the  famous  improvised  banquet 
at  the  time  of  the  election  to  the  Council-general.  The 
gaps  occasioned  by  the  absence  of  three  guests  may  have 
been  one  reason;  then  Flavie  was  glum;  she  had  had 
an  interview  with  la  Peyrade  in  the  afternoon  which 
ended  in  tears;  Celeste,  even  if  she  had  been  content 
with  the  choice  imposed  upon  her,  would  scarcely,  as  a 
matter  of  propriety,  have  seemed  joyful;  in  fact,  she 
made  no  effort  to  brighten  a  sad  face,  and  dared  not 
look  at  her  godmother,  whose  own  countenance  gave  the 
impression,  if  we  may  so  express  it,  of  the  long  bleating 
of  a  sheep.  The  poor  girl  seeing  this  feared  to  ex- 
change a  look  with  her  lest  she  might  drive  her  to  tears. 
Thuillier  now  felt  himself,  on  all  sides,  of  such  impor- 
tance that  he  was  pompous  and  consequential;  while 
Brigitte,  uneasy  out  of  her  own  world,  where  she  could 
lord  it  over  every  one  without  competition,  seemed 
constrained  and  embarrassed. 

Colleville  tried  by  a  few  jovialities  to  raise  the  tem- 
perature of  the  assemblage;  but  the  coarse  salt  of  his 


456  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

witticisms  had  an  effect,  in  the  atmosphere  in  which 
he  produced  them,  of  a  loud  laugh  in  a  sick-chamber; 
and  a  mate  intimation  from  his  wife,  Thuillier,  and  la 
Peyrade  to  behave  himself  put  a  stopper  on  his  liveli- 
ness and  turbulent  expansion.  It  is  somewhat  remark- 
able .that  the  gravest  member  of  the  party,  aided  by 
Rabourdin,  was  the  person  who  finally  warmed  up  the 
atmosphere.  The  Abbe  Gondrin,  a  man  of  a  most  re- 
fined and  cultivated  mind,  had,  like  every  pure  and  well- 
ordered  soul,  a  fund  of  gentle  gayety  which  he  was  well 
able  to  communicate,  and  liveliness  was  beginning  to 
dawn  upon  the  party  when  Minard -entered  the  room. 

After  making  his  excuses  on  the  ground  of  important 
duties,  the  mayor  of  the  eleventh  arrondissement,  who 
was  in  the  habit  of  taking  the  lead  in  the  conversation 
wherever  he  might  be,  said,  having  swallowed  a  few 
hasty  mouthf uls :  — 

4 'Messieurs  and  mesdames,  have  you  heard  the  great 
news?" 

4 'No,  what  is  it?  "  cried  several  voices  at  once. 

"The  Academy  of  Sciences  received,  to-day,  at  its 
afternoon  session,  the  announcement  of  a  vast  discovery : 
the  heavens  possess  a  new  star! " 

"Tiens/"  said  Colleville;  "that  will  help  to  replace 
the  one  that  Beranger  thought  was  lost  when  he  grieved 
(to  that  air  of  '  Octavie  ')  over  Chateaubriand's  depart- 
ure: 'Chateaubriand,  why  fly  thy  land?  '  " 

This  quotation,  which  he  sang,  exasperated  Flavie, 
and  if  the  custom  had  been  for  wives  to  sit  next  to  their 
husbands,  the  former  clarionet  of  the  Op6ra-Comique 
would  not  have  escaped  with  a  mere  "Colleville!"  im- 
periously calling  him  to  order. 

"The  point  which  gives  this  great  astronomical  event 
a  special  interest  on  this  occasion,"  continued  Minard, 
"is  that  the  author  of  the  discovery  is  a  denizen  of  the 
twelfth  arrondissement,  which  many  of  you  still  inhabit, 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  457 

or  have  inhabited.  But  other' points  are  striking  in  this 
great  scientific  fact.  The  Academy,  on  the  reading  of 
the  communication  which  announced  it,  was  so  convinced 
of  the  existence  of  this  star  that  a  deputation  was 
appointed  to  visit  the  domicile  of  the  modern  Galileo 
and  compliment  him  in  the  name  of  the  whole  body. 
And  yet  this  star  is  not  visible  to  either  the  eye  or  the 
telescope!  it  is  only  by  the  power  of  calculation  and 
induction  that  its  existence  and  the  place  it  occupies  in 
the  heavens  have  been  proved  in  the  most  irrefutable 
manner:  'There  must  be  there  a  hitherto  unknown  star; 
I  cannot  see  it,  but  I  am  sure  of  it, '  —  that  is  what  this 
man  of  science  said  to  the  Academy,  whom  he  instantly 
convinced  by  his  deductions.  And  do  ^ou  know,  mes- 
sieurs, who  is  this  Christopher  Columbus  of  a  new  celes- 
tial world?  An  old  man,  two-thirds  blind,  who  has 
scarcely  eyes  enough  to  walk  in  the  street." 

"Wonderful!  Marvellous!  Admirable!  "  came  from 
all  sides. 

"What  is  the  name  of  this  learned  man?"  asked 
several  voices. 

"Monsieur  Picot,  or,  if  you  prefer  it,  pere  Picot,  for 
that  is  how  they  call  him  in  the  rue  du  Val-de-Grace, 
where  he  lives.  He  is  simply  an  old  professor  of  mathe- 
matics, who  has  turned  out  several  very  fine  pupils, — 
by  the  bye,  Felix  Phellion,  whom  we  all  know,  studied 
under  him,  and  it  was  he  who  read,  on  behalf  of  his 
blind  old  master,  the  communication  to  the  Academy 
this  afternoon." 

Hearing  that  name,  and  remembering  the  promise 
Felix  had  made  her  to  lift  her  to  the  skies,  which,  as 
he  said  it,  she  had  fancied  a  sign  of  madness,  Celeste 
looked  at  Madame  Thuillier,  whose  face  had  taken  a 
sudden  glow  of  animation,  and  seemed  to  say  to  her, 
"Courage,  my  child!    all  is  not  lost." 

"My  dear  Theodose,"  said  Thuillier,  "Felix  is  com- 


458  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

ing  here  to-night;  you  milst  take  him  aside  and  get  him 
to  give  you  a  copy  of  that  communication;  it  would  he 
;i  fine  stroke  of  fortune  for  the  '  Echo  '  to  be  the  first  to 
publish  it." 

"Yes,"  said  Minard,  assuming  the  answer,  "that 
would  do  good  service  to  the  public,  for  the  affair  is 
going  to  make  a  great  noise.  The  committee,  not  find- 
ing Monsieur  Picot  at  home,  went  straight  to  the  Min- 
ister of  Public  Instruction ;  and  the  minister  flew  to  the 
Tuileries  and  saw  the  King;  and  the  '  Messager  '  came 
out  this  evening  —  strange  to  say,  so  early  that  I  could 
read  it  in  my  carriage  as  I  drove  along  —  with  an 
announcement  that  Monsieur  Picot  is  named  Chevalier 
of  the  Legion  t>f  honor,  with  a  pension  of  eighteen  hun- 
dred francs  from  the  fund  devoted  to  the  encouragement 
of  science  and  letters." 

"Well,"  said  Thuillier,  "there  's  one  cross  at  least  well 
bestowed." 

"But  eighteen  hundred  francs  for  the  pension  seems 
to  me  rather  paltry,"  said  Dutocq. 

"So  it  does,"  said  Thuillier,  "and  all  the  more  because 
that  money  comes  from  the  tax-payers ;  and,  when  one  sees 
the  taxes,  as  we  do,  frittered  away  on  court  favorites—" 

"Eighteen  hundred  francs  a  year,"  interrupted  Minard, 
"is  certainly  something,  especially  for  savants,  a  class 
of  people  who  are  accustomed  to  live  on  very  little." 

"I  think  I  have  heard,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "that  this 
very  Monsieur  Picot  leads  a  strange  life,  and  that  his 
family,  who  at  first  wanted  to  shut  him  up  as  a  lunatic, 
are  now  trying  to  have  guardians  appointed  over  him. 
They  say  he  allows  a  servant-woman  who  keeps  his 
house  to  rob  him  of  all  he  has.  Parbleu!  Thuillier,  you 
know  her;  it  is  that  woman  who  came  to  the  office  the 
other  day  about  some  money  in  Dupuis's  hands." 

"Yes,  yes,  true,"  said  Thuillier,  significantly;  "you 
are  right,  I  do  know  her." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  459 

"It  is  queer,"  said  Brigitte,  seeing  a  chance  to  enforce 
the  argument  she  had  used  to  Celeste,  "that  all  these 
learned  men  are  good  for  nothing  outside  of  their  science; 
in  their  homes  they  have  to  be  treated  like  children." 

"That  proves,"  said  the  Abbe  Gondrin,  "the  great 
absorption  which  their  studies  give  to  their  minds,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  a  simplicity  of  nature  which  is  very 
touching." 

"When  they  are  not  as  obstinate  as  mules,"  said 
Brigitte,  hastily.  "For  myself,  Monsieur  l'abbe,  I  must 
say  that  if  I  had  had  any  idea  of  marriage,  a  savant 
would  n't  have  suited  me  at  all.  What  do  they  do,  these 
savants,  anyhow?  Useless  things  most  of  the  time. 
You  are  all  admiring  one  who  has  discovered  a  star;  but 
as  long  as  we  are  in  this  world  what  good  is  that  to  us  ? 
For  all  the  use  we  make  of  stars  it  seems  to  me  we  have 
got  enough  of  them  as  it  is." 

"  Bravo,  Brigitte !  "  said  Colleville,  getting  loose  again ; 
"you  are  right,  my  girl,  and  I  think,  as  you  do,  that 
the  man  who  discovers  a  new  dish  deserves  better  of 
humanity." 

"Colleville,"  said  Flavie,  "I  must  say  that  your  style 
of  behavior  is  in  the  worst  taste." 

"My  dear  lady,"  said  the  Abba  Gondrin,  addressing 
Brigitte,  "you  might  be  right  if  we  were  formed  of 
matter  only ;  and  if,  bound  to  our  body,  there  were  not 
a  soul  with  instincts  and  appetites  that  must  be  satisfied. 
Well,  I  think  that  this  sense  of  the  infinite  which  is 
within  us,  and  which  we  all  try  to  satisfy  each  in  our 
own  way,  is  marvellously  well  helped  by  the  labors  of 
astronomy,  that  reveal  to  us  from  time  to  time  new 
worlds  which  the  hand  of  the  Creator  has  put  into  space. 
The  infinite  in  you  has  taken  another  course;  this  pas- 
sion for  the  comfort  of  those  about  you,  this  warm, 
devoted,  ardent  affection  which  you  feel  for  your  brother, 
are  equally  the  manifestation  of  aspirations  which  have 


460  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

nothing  material  about  them,  and  which,  in  seeking  their 
end  and  object,  never  think  of  asking,  'What  good  does 
that  do?  what  is  the  use  of  this?  '  Besides,  I  must 
assure  you  that  the  stars  are  not  as  useless  as  you  seem 
to  think.  Without  them  how  could  navigators  cross  the 
sea?  They  would  be  puzaJed  to  get  you  the  vanilla  with 
which  you  have  flavored  the  delicious  cream  I  am  now 
eating.  So,  as  Monsieur  Colleville  has  perceived,  there 
is  more  affinity  than  you  think  between  a  dish  and  a 
star;  no  one  should  be  despised, —  neither  an  astronomer 
nor  a  good  housekeeper  —  " 

The  abbe  was  here  interrupted  by  the  noise  of  a  lively 
altercation  in  the  antechamber. 

"I  tell  you  that  I  will  go  in,"  said  a  loud  voice. 

uNo,  monsieur,  you  shall  not  go  in,"  said  another 
voice,  that  of  the  man-servant.  "The  company  are  at 
table,  I  tell  you,  and  nobody  has  the  right  to  force 
himself  in." 

Thuillier  turned  pale;  ever  since  the  seizure  of  his 
pamphlet,  he  fancied  all  sudden  arrivals  meant  the 
coming  of  the  police. 

Among  the  various  social  rules  imparted  to  Brigitte 
by  Madame  de  Godollo,  the  one  that  most  needed  repeat- 
ing was  the  injunction  never,  as  mistress  of  the  house, 
to  rise  from  the  table  until  she  gave  the  signal  for  retir- 
ing. But  present  circumstances  appeared  to  warrant  the 
infraction  of  the  rule. 

"I  '11  go  and  see  what  it  is,"  she  said  to  Thuillier, 
whose  anxiety  she  noticed  at  once.  "What  is  the 
matter?  "  she  said  to  the  servant  as  soon  as  she  reached 
the  scene  of  action. 

"Here  's  a  gentleman  who  wants  to  come  in,  and  says 
that  no  one  is  ever  dining  at  eight  o'clock  at  night." 

"But  who  are  you,  monsieur?"  said  Brigitte,  address- 
ing an  old  man  very  oddly  clothed,  whose  eyes  were 
protected  by  a  green  shade. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  461 

"Madame,  I  am  neither  a  beggar  nor  a  vagabond," 
replied  the  old  man,  in  stentorian  tones;  "my  name  is 
Picot,  professor  of  mathematics." 

"Rue  du  Val-de-Grace?  "  asked  Brigitte. 

"Yes,  madame,  —  No.  9,  next  to  the  print-shop." 

"Come  in,  monsieur,  come  in;  we  shall  be  only  too 
happy  to  receive  you,"  cried  Thuillier,  who,  on  hearing 
the  name,  had  hurried  out  to  meet  the  savant. 

uHein  !  you  scamp,"  said  the  learned  man,  turning  upon 
the  man-servant,  who  had  retired,  seeing  that  the  matter 
was  being  settled  amicably,  "I  told  you  I  should  get  in." 

Pere  Picot  was  a  tall  old  man,  with  an  angular,  stern 
face,  who,  despite  the  corrective  of  a  blond  wig  with 
heavy  curls,  and  that  of  the  pacific  green  shade  we  have 
already  mentioned,  expressed  on  his  large  features,  upon 
which  the  fury  of  study  had  produced  a  surface  of  leaden 
pallor,  a  snappish  and  quarrelsome  disposition.  Of  this 
he  had  already  given  proof  before  entering  the  dining- 
room,  where  every  one  now  rose  to  receive  him. 

His  costume  consisted  of  a  huge  frock-coat,  something 
between  a  paletot  and  a  dressing-gown,  beneath  which 
an  immense  waistcoat  of  iron-gray  cloth,  fastened  from 
the  throat  to  the  pit  of  the  stomach  with  two  rows  of 
buttons,  hussar  fashion,  formed  a  sort  of  buckler.  The 
trousers,  though  October  was  nearing  its  close,  were 
made  of  black  lasting,  and  gave  testimony  to  long  ser- 
vice by  the  projection  of  a  darn  on  the  otherwise  polished 
surface  covering  the  knees,  the  polish  being  produced  by 
the  rubbing  of  the  hands  upon  those  parts.  But,  in 
broad  daylight,  the  feature  of  the  old  savant's  appear- 
ance which  struck  the  eye  most  vividly  was  a  pair  of 
Patagonian  feet,  imprisoned  in  slippers  of  beaver  cloth, 
the  which,  moulded  upon  the  mountainous  elevations  of 
gigantic  bunions,  made  the  spectator  think,  involuntarily, 
of  the  back  of  a  dromedary  or  an  advanced  case  of 
elephantiasis. 


462  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 

Once  installed  in  a  chair  which  was  hastily  brought 
for  him,  and  the  company  having  returned  to  their  places 
at  table,  the  old  man  suddenly  burst  out  in  thundering 
tones,  amid  the  silence  created  by  curiosity :  — 

"Where  is  he, —  that  rogue,  that  scamp?  Let  him  show 
himself;  let  him  dare  to  speak  to  me!  " 

"Who  is  it  that  offends  you,  my  dear  monsieur?."  said 
Thuillier,  in  conciliating  accents,  in  which  there  was  a 
slight  tone  of  patronage. 

"A  scamp  whom  I  couldn't  find  in  his  own  home,  and 
they  told  me  he  was  here,  in  this  house.  I  'm  in  the 
apartment,  I  think,  of  Monsieur  Thuillier  of  the  Council- 
general,  place  de  la  Madeleine,  first  story  above  the 
entresol  ?  * 

"Precisely,"  said  Thuillier;  "and  allow  me  to  add, 
monsieur,  that  you  are  surrounded  with  the  respect  and 
sympathy  of  all." 

"And  you  will  doubtless  permit  me  to  add,"  said 
Minard,  "that  the  mayor  of  the  arrondissement  adjoin- 
ing that  which  you  inhabit  congratulates  himself  on 
being  here  in  presence  of  Monsieur  Picot,  —  the  Mon- 
sieur Picot,  no  doubt,  who  has  just  immortalized  his 
name  by  the  discovery  of  a  star!" 

"Yes,  monsieur,"  replied  the  professor,  elevating  to  a 
still  higher  pitch  the  stentorian  diapason  of  his  voice, 
"I  am  Picot  (Nepomucene),  but  I  have  not  discovered 
a  star;  I  don't  concern  myself  with  any  such  fiddle- 
faddle  ;  besides,  my  eyes  are  very  weak ;  and  that  insolent 
young  fellow  I  have  come  here  to  find  is  making  me  ridicu- 
lous with  such  talk.  I  don't  see  him  here;  he  is  hiding 
himself,  I  know;  he  dares  not  look  me  in  the  face." 

"Who  is  this  person  who  annoys  you?"  asked  several 
voices  at  once. 

"An  unnatural  pupil  of  mine,"  replied  the  old  mathe- 
matician; "a  scamp,  but  full  of  ideas;  his  name  is  Felix 
Phellion." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  463 

The  name  was  received,  as  may  well  be  imagined,  with 
amazement.  Finding  the  situation  amusing,  Colleville 
and  la  Peyrade  went  off  into  fits  of  laughter. 

"You  laugh,  fools!"  cried  the  irate  old  man,  rising. 
"Yes,  come  and  laugh  within  reach  of  my  arm." 

So  saying,  he  brandished  a  thick  stick  with  a  white 
china  handle,  which  he  used  to  guide  himself,  thereby 
nearly  knocking  over  a  candelabrum  on  the  dinner-table 
upon  Madame  Minard's  head. 

"You  are  mistaken,  monsieur,"  cried  Brigitte,  spring- 
ing forward  and  seizing  his  arm.  "Monsieur  Felix  is 
not  here.  He  will  probably  come  later  to  a  reception 
we  are  about  to  give;  but  at  present  he  has  not  arrived." 

"They  don't  begin  early,  your  receptions,"  said  the 
old  man;  "it  is  past  eight  o'clock.  Well,  as  Monsieur 
Felix  is  coming  later,  you  must  allow  me  to  wait  for 
him.  I  believe  you  were  eating  your  dinners;  don't  let 
me  disturb  you." 

And  he  went  back  peaceably  to  his  chair. 

"As  you  permit  it,  monsieur,"  said  Brigitte,  "we  will 
continue,  or,  I  should  say,  finish  dinner,  for  we  are  now 
at  the  dessert.  May  I  offer  you  anything, —  a  glass  of 
champagne  and  a  biscuit?" 

"I  am  very  willing,  madame,"  replied  the  intruder. 
"No  one  ever  refuses  champagne,  and  I  am  always  ready 
to  eat  between  my  meals;  but  you  dine  very  late." 

A  place  was  made  for  him  at  table  between  Colleville 
and  Mademoiselle  Minard,  and  the  former  made  it  his 
business  to  fill  the  glass  of  his  new  neighbor,  before 
whom  was  placed  a  dish  of  small  cakes. 

"Monsieur,"  said  la  Peyrade,  in  a  cajoling  tone,  "you 
saw  how  surprised  we  were  to  hear  you  complain  of 
Monsieur  Felix  Phellion, —  so  amiable,  so  inoffensive  a 
young  man.  What  has  he  done  to-  you,  that  you  should 
feel  so  angry  with  him  ?  " 

With  his  mouth  full  of  cakes,  which  he  was  engulfing 


464  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

in  quantities  that  made  Brigitte  uneasy,  the  professor 
made  a  sign  that  he  would  soon  answer;  then,  hav- 
ing mistaken  his  glass  and  swallowed  the  contents  of 
Colleville's,  he  replied:  — 

"You  ask  what  that  insolent  young  man  has  done  to 
me?  A  rascally  thing;  and  not  the  first,  either.  He 
knows  that  I  cannot  abide  stars,  having  very  good  reason 
to  hate  them,  as  you  shall  hear:  In  1807,  being  attached 
to  the  Bureau  of  Longitudes,  I  was  part  of  the  scientific 
expedition  sent  to  Spain,  under  the  direction  of  my 
friend  and  colleague,  Jean-Baptiste  Biot,  to  determine 
the  arc  of  the  terrestrial  meridian  from  Barcelona  to  the 
Balearic  isles.  I  was  just  in  the  act  of  observing  a  star 
(perhaps  the  very  one  my  rascally  pupil  has  discovered), 
when  suddenly,  war  having  broken  out  between  France 
and  Spain,  the  peasants,  seeing  me  perched  with  a  tel- 
escope on  Monte  Galazzo,  took  it  into  their  heads  that 
I  was  making  signals- to  the  enemy.  A  mob  of  savages 
broke  my  instruments,  and  talked  of  stringing  me  up. 
They  were  just  going  to  do  it,  when  the  captain  of  a 
vessel  took  me  prisoner  and  thrust  me  into  the  citadel 
of  Belver,  where  I  spent  three  years  in  the  harshest  cap- 
tivity. Since  then,  as  you  may  well  believe,  I  loathe 
the  whole  celestial  system ;  though  I  was,  without  know- 
ing it,  the  first  to  observe  the  famous  comet  of  1811 ;  but 
I  should  have  taken  care  not  to  say  a  word  about  it  if  it 
had  not  been  for  Monsieur  Flauguergues,  who  announced 
it.  Like  all  my  pupils,  Phellion  knows  my  aversion  to 
stars,  and  he  knew  very  well  the  worst  trick  he  could 
play  me  would  be  to  saddle  one  on  my  back;  and  that 
deputation  that  came  to  play  the  farce  of  congratulating 
me  was  mighty  lucky  not  to  find  me  at  home,  for  if  they 
had,  I  can  assure  those  gentlemen  of  the  Academy,  they 
would  have  had  a  hot- reception." 

Everybody  present  thought  the  old   mathematician's 
monomania   quite   delightful,   except   la   Peyrade,    who 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  465 

now,  on  perceiving  Felix  Phellion's  part  in  the  affair, 
regretted  deeply  having  caused  the  explanation. 

"And  yet,  Monsieur  Picot."  said  Minard,  "if  Felix 
Phellion  is  only  guilty  of  attributing  his  discovery  to 
you,  it  seems  to  me  that  his  indiscreet  behavior  has 
resulted  in  a  certain  compensation  to  you:  the  cross  of 
the  Legion  of  honor,  a  pension,  and  the  glory  attached 
to  your  name  are  not  to  be  despised." 

"The  cross  and  the  pension  I  take,"  said  the  old  man, 
emptying  his  glass,  which,  to  Brigitte's  terror,  he  set 
down  upon  the  table  with  a  force  that  threatened  to 
smash  it.  "The  government  has  owed  them  to  me  these 
twenty  years ;  not  for  the  discovery  of  stars,  —  things 
that  I  have  always  despised, — but  for  my  famous 
'  Treatise  on  Differential  Logarithms'  (Kepler  thought 
proper  to  call  them  monologarithms),  which  is  a  sequel 
to  the  tables  of  Napier ;  also  for  my  '  Postulatum  '  of 
Euclid,  of  which  I  was  the  first  to  discover  the  solution; 
but  above  all,  for  my  '  Theory  of  Perpetual  Motion,'  — 
four  volumes  in  quarto  with  plates ;  Paris,  1825.  You 
see,  therefore,  monsieur,  that  to  give  me  glory  is  bringing 
water  to  the  Seine.  I  had  so  little  need  of  Monsieur 
Felix  Phellion  to  make  me  a  position  in  the  scientific 
world  that  I  turned  him  out  of  my  house  long  ago." 

"Then  it  is  n't  the  first  star,"  said  Colleville,  flippantly, 
"that  he  dared  to  put  upon  you?  " 

"He  did  worse  than  that,"  roared  the  old  man;  "he 
ruined  my  reputation,  he  tarnished  my  name.  My 
'  Theory  of  Perpetual  Motion,'  the  printing  of  which 
cost  me  every  penny  I  owned,  though  it  ought  to  have 
been  printed  gratis  at  the  Royal  Printing-office,  was 
calculated  to  make  my  fortune  and  render  me  immortal. 
Well,  that  miserable  Felix  prevented  it.  From  time  to 
time,  pretending  to  bring  messages  from  my  editor,  he 
would  say,  the  young  sycophant,  '  Papa  Picot,  your  book 
is  selling  finely;  here's  five  hundred  francs  —  two  hun- 

30 


466  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

dred  francs  —  and  once  it  was  two  thousand  —  which 
your  publisher  charged  me  to  give  you.'  This  thing- 
went  on  for  years,  and  my  publisher,  who  had  the  base- 
ness to  enter  into  the  plot,  would  say  to  me,  when  I  went 
to  the  shop:  'Yes,  yes,  it  does  n't  do  badly,  it  bubbles, 
that  book;  we  shall  soon  be  at  the  end  of  this  edition.' 
I,  who  did  n't  suspect  anything,  I  pocketed  my  money, 
and  thought  to  myself:  l  My  book  is  liked;  little  by 
little  its  ideas  are  making  their  way;  I  may  now  expect, 
from  day  to  day,  that  some  great  capitalist  will  come  to 
me  and  propose  to  apply  my  system  —  '  " 

" — of  'Absorption  of  Liquids'?"  asked  Colleville, 
who  had  been  steadily  filling  the  old  fellow's  glass. 

"No,  monsieur,  my  '  Theory  of  Perpetual  Motion,'  4 
vols,  in  quarto  with  plates.  But  no!  days,  weeks  went  by 
and  nobody  came;  so,  thinking  that  my  publisher  did  not 
put  all  the  energy  he  should  into  the  matter,  I  tried  to  sell 
the  second  edition  to  another  man.  It  was  that,  monsieur, 
that  enabled  me  to  discover  the  whole  plot,  on  which,  as 
I  said  before,  I  turned  that  serpent  out  of  rny  house.  In 
six  years  only  nine  copies  had  been  sold!  Kept  quiet  in 
false  security  I  had  done  nothing  for  the  propagation  of 
my  book,  which  had  been  left  to  take  care  of  itself;  and 
thus  it  was  that  I,  victim  of  black  and  wicked  jealousy, 
was  shamefully  despoiled  of  the  value  of  my  labors." 

"But,"  said  Minard,  making  himself  the  mouthpiece 
of  the  thoughts  of  the  company,  "may  we  not  see  in  that 
act  a  manner  as  ingenious  as  it  was  delicate  to  —  " 

"To  give  me  alms!  is  that  what  you  mean?"  inter- 
rupted the  old  man,  with  a  roar  that  made  Mademoiselle 
Minard  jump  in  her  chair;  "to  humiliate  me,  dishonor 
me  —  me,  his  old  professor!  Am  I  in  need  of  charity? 
Has  Picot  (Nepomucene),  to  whom  his  wife  brought  a 
dowry  of  one  hundred  thousand  francs,  ever  stretched 
out  his  palm  to  any  one?  But  in  these  days  nothing  is 
respected.     Old  fellows,  as  they  call  us,  our  religion  and 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  4GT 

our  good  faith  is  taken  advantage  of  so  that  these  youths 
may  say  to  the  public:  '  Old  drivellers,  don't  you  see 
now  they  are  good  for  nothing  ?  It  needs  us,  the  young 
generation,  us,  the  moderns,  us,  Young  France,  to  bring 
them  up  on  a  bottle.'  Young  greenhorn!  let  me  see  you 
try  to  feed  me  !  Old  drivellers  know  more  in  their  little 
finger  than  you  in  your  whole  brain,  and  you  '11  never  be 
worth  us,  paltry  little  intriguer  that  you  are !  However, 
I  know  my  day  of  vengeance  will  come;  that  young 
Phellion  can't  help  ending  badly;  what  he  did  to-day, 
reading  a  statement  to  the  Academy,  under  my  name, 
was  forgery,  forgery !  and  the  law  will  send  him  to  the 
galleys  for  that." 

"True,"  said  Colleville,  "forgery  of  a  public  star." 

Brigitte,  who  quaked  for  her  glasses,  and  whose  nerves 
were  exacerbated  by  the  monstrous  consumption  of  cakes 
and  wine,  now  gave  the  signal  to  return  to  the  salon. 
Besides,  she  had  heard  the  door-bell  ring  several  times, 
announcing  the  arrival  of  guests  for  the  evening.  The 
question  then  was  how  to  transplant  the  professor,  and 
Colleville  politely  offered  him  his  arm. 

"No,  monsieur,"  he  said,  "you  must  allow  me  to  stay 
where  I  am.  I  am  not  dressed  for  a  party,  and  besides, 
a  strong  light  hurts  my  eyes.  Moreover,  I  don't  choose 
to  give  myself  as  a  spectacle ;  it  will  be  best  that  my 
interview  with  Felix  Phellion  should  take  place  between 
*  four-eyes,'  as  they  say." 

"Well,  let  him  alone,  then,"  said  Brigitte  to  Colleville. 

No  one  insisted, —  the  old  man  having,  unconsciously, 
pretty  nigh  discrowned  himself  in  the  opinion  of  the 
company.  But  before  leaving,  the  careful  housewife 
removed  everything  that  was  at  all  fragile  from  his 
reach;  then,  by  way  of  a  slight  attention,  she  said:  — 

"Shall  I  send  you  some  coffee? " 

"I'll  take  it,  madame,"  responded  pere  Picot,  "and 
some  cognac  with  it." 


408  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Oh!  parbleuf  he  takes  everything,"  sak)  Brigitte  to 
the  male  domestic,  and  she  told  the  latter  to  keep  an  eye 
on  the  old  madman. 

When  Brigitte  returned  to  the  salon  she  found  that  the 
Abbe  Gondrin  had  become  the  centre  of  a  great  circle 
formed  by  nearly  the  whole  company,  and  as  she 
approached,  she  heard  him  say:  — 

"I  thank  Heaven  for  bestowing  upon  me  such  a  pleas- 
ure. I  have  never  felt  an  emotion  like  that  aroused  by 
the  scene  we  have  just  witnessed ;  even  the  rather  bur- 
lesque form  of  this  confidence,  which  was  certainly  very 
artless,  for  it  was  quite  involuntary,  only  adds  to  the 
honor  of  the  surprising  generosity  it  revealed.  Placed 
as  I  am  by  my  ministry  in  the  way  of  knowing  of  many 
charities,  and  often  either  the  witness  or  the  intermediary 
of  good  actions,  I  think  I  never  in  my  life  have  met  with 
a  more  touching  or  a  more  ingenious  devotion.  To  keep 
the  left  hand  ignorant  of  what  the  rig  ht  handdoes  is  a 
great  step  in  Christianity;  but  to  go  so  far  as  to  rob 
one's  self  of  one's  own  fame  to  benefit  another  under  such 
conditions  is  the  gospel  applied  in  its  highest  precepts; 
it  is  being  more  than  a  Sister  of  Charity;  it  is  doing  the 
work  of  an  apostle  of  beneficence.  How  I  should  like  to 
know  that  noble  young  man,  and  shake  him  by  the 
hand." 

With  her  arm  slipped  through  that  of  her  godmother, 
Celeste  was  standing  very  near  the  priest,  her  ears  intent 
upon  his  words,  her  arm  pressing  tighter  and  tighter  that 
of  Madame  Thuillier,  as  the  abbe  analyzed  the  generous 
action  of  Felix  Phellion,  until  at  last  she  whispered 
under  her  breath:  — 

"You  hear,  godmother,  you  hear!  " 

To  destroy  the  inevitable  effect  which  this  hearty 
praise  would  surely  have  on  Celeste,  Thuillier  hastened 
to  say: — 

"Unfortunately,  Monsieur  l'abbd,  the  young  man  of 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  469 

whom  you  speak  so  warmly  is  not  altogether  unknown 
to  you.  I  have  had  occasion  to  tell  you  about  him,  and 
to  regret  that  it  was  not  possible  to  follow  out  certain 
plans  which  we  once  entertained  for  him;  I  allude  to 
the  very  compromising  independence  he  affects  in  his 
religious  opinions." 

"Ah!  is  that  the  young  man?"  said  the  abbe;  "you 
surprise  me  much;  I  must  say  such  an  idea  would  never 
have  crossed  my  mind." 

"You  will  see  him  presently,  Monsieur  l'abbe,"  said 
la  Peyrade,  joining  in  the  conversation,  "and  if  you  ques- 
tion him  on  certain  grounds  you  will  have  no  difficulty 
in  discovering  the  ravages  that  a  love  of  science  can 
commit  in  the  most  gifted  souls." 

"I  am  afraid  I  shall  not  see  him,"  said  the  abbe,  "as 
my  black  gown  would  be  out  of  place  in  the  midst  of  the 
more  earthly  gayety  that  will  soon  fill  this  salon.  But  I 
know,  Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade,  that  you  are  a  man  of 
sincerely  pious  convictions,  and  as,  without  any  doubt, 
you  feel  as  much  interest  in  the  young  man's  welfare  as 
I  do  myself,  I  shall  say  to  you  in  parting:  Do  not  be 
uneasy  about  him ;  sooner  or  later,  such  choice  souls  come 
back  to  us,  and  if  the  return  of  these  prodigals  should 
be  long  delayed  I  should  not  fear,  on  seeing  them  go  to 
God,  that  his  infinite  mercy  would  fail  them." 

So  saying,  the  abbe  looked  about  to  find  his  hat,  and 
proceeded  to  slip  quietly  away. 

Suddenly  a  fearful  uproar  was  heard.  Rushing  into 
the  dining-room,  whence  came  a  sound  of  furniture  over- 
turned and  glasses  breaking,  Brigitte  found  Colleville 
occupied  in  adjusting  his  cravat  and  looking  himself 
over  to  be  sure  that  his  coat,  cruelly  pulled  awry,  bore 
no  signs  of  being  actually  torn. 

"What  is  the  matter?  "  cried  Brigitte. 

"It  is  that  old  idiot,"  replied  Colleville,  "who  is  in  a 
fury.     I  came  to  take  my  coffee  with  him,  just  to  keep 


470  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

him  company,  and  he  took  a  joke  amiss,  and  collared 
me,  and  knocked  over  two  chairs  and  a  tray  of  glasses 
because  Josephine  did  n't  get  out  of  his  way  in  time." 

"It  is  all  because  you  've  been  teasing  him,"  said 
Brigitte,  crossly;  "why  couldn't  you  stay  in  the  salon 
instead  of  coming  here  to  play  your  jokes,  as  you  call 
them?  You  think  you  are  still  in  the  orchestra  of  the 
Opera-Comique. " 

This  sharp  rebuke  delivered,  Brigitte,  like  the  resolute 
woman  that  she  was,  saw  that  she  absolutely  must  get 
rid  of  the  ferocious  old  man  who  threatened  her  house- 
hold with  flames  and  blood.  Accordingly,  she  approached 
pere  Picot,  who  was  tranquilly  engaged  in  burning  brandy 
in  his  saucer. 

"Monsieur,"  she  said,  at  the  top  of  her  lungs,  as  if 
she  were  speaking  to  a  deaf  person  (evidently  thinking 
that  a  blind  one  ought  to  be  treated  in  the  same  man- 
ner), "I  have  come  to  tell  you  something  that  may  annoy 
you.  Monsieur  and  Madame  Phellion  have  just  arrived, 
and  they  inform  me  that  their  son,  Monsieur  Felix,  is 
not  coming.     He  has  a  cold  and  a  sore-throat." 

"Then  he  got  it  this  afternoon  reading  that  lec- 
ture," cried  the  professor,  joyfully.  "That 's  justice!  — 
Madame,  where  do  you  get  your  brandy  ?  " 

"Why,  at  my  grocer's,"  replied  Brigitte,  taken  aback 
by  the  question. 

"Well,  madame,  I  ought  to  tell  you  that  in  a  house 
where  one  can  drink  such  excellent  champagne,  which 
reminds  me  of  that  we  used  to  quaff  at  the  table  of  Mon- 
sieur de  Fontanes,  grand-master  of  the  University,  it  is 
shameful  to  keep  such  brandy.  I  tell  you,  with  the 
frankness  I  put  into  everything,  that  it  is  good  only  to 
wash  your  horses'  feet,  and  if  I  had  not  the  resource  of 
burning   it  —  " 

"He  is  the  devil  in  person,"  thought  Brigitte;  "not  a 
word  of  excuse  about  all  that  glass,  but  he  must  needs 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  471 

fall  foul  of  my  brandy  too!  —  Monsieur,"  she  resumed, 
in  the  same  raised  diapason,  "as  Monsieur  Felix  is  not 
coining,  don't  you  think  your  family  will  be  uneasy  at 
your  absence?  " 

"Family?  I  have  n't  any,  madame,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  they  want  to  make  me  out  a  lunatic.  But  I  have  a 
housekeeper,  Madame  Lambert,  and  I  dare  say  she  will 
be  surprised  not  to  see  me  home  by  this  time.  I  think 
I  had  better  go  now ;  if  I  stay  later,  the  scene  might  be 
more  violent.  But  I  must  own  that  in  this  strange  quarter 
I  am  not  sure  if  I  can  find  my  way." 

"Then  take  a  carriage." 

"Carriage  here,  carriage  there,  indeed!  my  spiteful 
relations  wouldn't  lose  the  chance  of  calling  me  a 
spendthrift." 

"I  have  an  important  message  to  send  into  your  quar- 
ter," said  Brigitte,  seeing  she  must  resolve  to  make  the 
sacrifice,  "  and  I  have  just  told  my  porter  to  take  a  cab 
and  attend  to  it.  If  you  would  like  to  take  advantage 
of  that  convenience  —  " 

"I  accept  it,  madame,"  said  the  old  professor,  rising; 
"and,  if  it  comes  to  the  worst,  I  hope  you  will  testify 
before  the  judge  that  I  was  niggardly  about  a  cab." 

"Henri,"  said  Brigitte  to  the  man-servant,  "take  mon- 
sieur down  to  the  porter  and  tell  him  to  do  the  errand  I 
told  him  about  just  now,  and  to  take  monsieur  to  his 
own  door,  and  be  very  careful  of  him." 

"Careful  of  him!"  echoed  the  old  man.  "Do  you 
take  me  for  a  trunk,  madame,  or  a  bit  of  cracked 
china?" 

Seeing  that  she  had  got  her  man  fairly  to  the  door, 
Brigitte  allowed  herself  to  turn  upon  him. 

"What  I  say,  monsieur,  is  for  your  good.  You  must 
allow  me  to  observe  that  you  have  not  an  agreeable 
nature." 

"Careful  of  him!  careful  of  him!"  repeated  the  old 


472  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

man.  "Don't  you  know,  madame,  that  by  the  use  of 
such  words  you  may  get  people  put  into  lunatic  asylums? 
However,  I  will  not  reply  rudely  to  the  polite  hospitality 
I  have  received, —  all  the  more  because  I  think,  I  have 
put  Monsieur  Felix,  who  missed  me  intentionally,  in  his 
right  place." 

uGo,  go,  go,  you  old  brute!  "  cried  Brigitte,  slamming 
the  door  behind  him. 

Before  returning  to  the  salon  she  was  obliged  to  drink 
a  whole  glassful  of  water,  the  restraint  she  had  been 
forced  to  put  upon  herself  in  order  to  get  rid  of  this 
troublesome  guest  having,  to  use  her  own  expression, 
1  'put  her  all  about." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie,  473 


XIII. 

THE    MAN    WHO    THINKS    THE    STAR   TOO    BRIGHT. 

The  next  morning  Minarcl  paid  a  visit  to  Phellion  in 
his  study.  The  great  citizen  and  his  son  Felix  were  at 
that  moment  engaged  in  a  conversation  which  seemed  to 
have  some  unusual  interest  for  them. 

"My  dear  Felix,"  cried  the  mayor  of  the  eleventh 
arronclissement,  offering  his  hand  warmly  to  the  young 
professor,  "it  is  you  who  bring  me  here  this  morning; 
I  have  come  to  offer  you  my  congratulations." 

"What  has  occurred?"  asked  Phellion.  "Have  the 
Thuilliers  —  " 

"It  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  Thuilliers,"  interrupted 
the  mayor.  "But,"  he  added,  looking  hard  at  Felix, 
"can  that  sly  fellow  have  concealed  the  thing  even  from 
you?" 

"I  do  not  think,"  said  Phellion,  "that  ever,  in  his 
life,  has  my  son  concealed  a  thing  from  me." 

"Then  you  know  about  the  sublime  astronomical 
discovery  which  he  communicated  to  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  yesterday?  " 

"Your  kindliness  for  me,  Monsieur  le  maire,"  said 
Felix,  hastily,  "has  led  you  astray;  I  was  only  the  reader 
of  the  communication." 

"Oh!  let  me  alone!"  said  Minard;  "reader,  indeed! 
I  know  all  about  it." 

"But  see,"  said  Felix,  offering  Minard  the  "Constitu- 
tionnel,"  "here's  the  paper;  not  only  does  it  announce 
that  Monsieur  Picot  is  the  maker  of  the  discovery,  but  it 


474  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

mentions  the  rewards  which,  without  losing  a  moment, 
the  government  lias  bestowed  upon  him." 

"Felix  is  right,"  said  Phellion;  "that  journal  is  to  be 
trusted.  On  this  occasion  I  think  the  government  has 
acted  very  properly." 

"But,  my  dear  commander,  I  repeat  to  you  that  the 
truth  of  the  affair  has  got  wind,  and  your  son  is  shown 
to  be  a  most  admirable  fellow.  To  put  his  own  dis- 
covery to  the  credit  of  his  old  professor  so  as  to  obtain 
for  him  the  recognition  and  the  favor  of  the  authorities 
—  upon  my  word,  in  all  antiquity  I  don't  know  a  finer 
trait!" 

"Felix!  "  said  Phellion,  beginning  to  show  some  emo- 
tion, "these  immense  labors  to  which  you  have  devoted 
so  much  time  of  late,  these  continual  visits  to  the 
Observatory  —  " 

"But,  father,"  interrupted  Felix,  "Monsieur  Minard 
has  been  misinformed." 

"Misinformed!"  cried  Minard,  "when  I  know  the 
whole  affair  from  Monsieur  Picot  himself!" 

At  this  argument,  stated  in  a  way  to  leave  no  possible 
doubt,  the  truth  began  to  dawn  upon  Phellion. 

"Felix,  my  son!  "  he  said,  rising  to  embrace  him. 

But  he  was  obliged  to  sit  down  again;  his  legs  refused 
to  bear  his  weight;  be  turned  pale;  and  that  nature, 
ordinarily  so  impassible,  seemed  about  to  give  way  under 
the  shock  of  this  happiness. 

"My  God!  "  said  Felix,  terrified,  "he  is  ill;  ring  the 
bell,  I  entreat  you,  Monsieur  Minard." 

And  he  ran  to  the  old  man,  loosened  his  cravat  and 
unfastened  the  collar  of  his  shirt,  striking  him  in  the 
palms  of  his  hands.  But  the  sudden  faintness  was  but 
momentary;  almost  immediately  himself  again,  Phellion 
gathered  his  son  to  his  heart,  and  holding  him  long  in 
his  embrace,  he  said,  in  a  voice  broken  by  the  tears  that 
came  to  put  an  end  to  this  shock  of  joy:  — 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  475 

"Felix,  my  noble  son!  so  great  in  beart,  so  great  in 
mind!" 

The  bell  had  been  rung  by  Minard  with  magisterial 
force,  and  with  such  an  accent  that  the  whole  household 
was  alarmed,  and  came  running  in. 

"It  is  nothing,  it  is  nothing,"  said  Phellion  to  the 
servants,  sending  them  away.  But  almost  at  the  same 
moment,  -seeing  his  wife,  who  now  entered  the  room,  he 
resumed  his  habitual  solemnity. 

"Madame  Phellion,"  he  said,  pointing  to  Felix,  "how 
many  years  is  it  since  you  brought  that  young  man  into 
the  world  ? " 

Madame  Phellion,  bewildered  by  the  question,  hesi- 
tated a  moment,  and  then  said :  — 

"Twenty-five  years  next  January." 

"Have  you  not  thought,  until  now,  that  God  had 
amply  granted  your  maternal  desires  by  making  this 
child  of  your  womb  an  honest  man,  a  pious  son,  and  by 
gifting  him  for  mathematics,  that  Science  of  sciences, 
with  an  aptitude  sufficiently  remarkable?" 

"I  have,"  said  Madame  Phellion,  understanding  less 
and  less  what  her  husband  was  coming  to. 

"Well,"  continued  Phellion,  "you  owe  to  God  an 
additional  thanksgiving,  for  he  has  granted  that  you  be 
the  mother  of  a  man  of  genius;  his  toil,  which  latety  we 
rebuked,  and  which  made  us  fear  for  the  reason  of  our 
child,  was  the  way  —  the  rough  and  jagged  way  —  by 
which  men  come  to  fame." 

11  Ah  gat"  cried  Madame  Phellion,  "can't  you  stop 
coming  yourself  to  an  explanation  of  what  you  mean, 
and  get  there  ?  " 

"Your  son,"  said  Minard,  cautious  this  time  in 
measuring  the  joy  he  was  about  to  bestow,  fearing 
another  fainting-fit  of  happiness,  "has  just  made  a  very 
important  scientific  discovery." 

"Is  it   true?"  said   Madame   Phellion,   going  up  to 


476  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Fe'lix,  and  taking  him  by  both  hands  as  she  looked  at 
him  lovingly. 

"When  I  say  important,"  continued  Minard,  "I  am 
only  sparing  your  maternal  emotions;  it  is,  in  truth,  a 
sublime,  a  dazzling  discovery.  He  is  only  twenty-five 
years  old,  but  his  name,  from  henceforth,  is  immortal." 

"And  this  is  the  man,"  said  Madame  Phellion,  half 
beside  herself,  and  kissing  Felix  with  effusion,  "to 
whom  that  la  Peyrade  is  preferred ! " 

"No,  not  preferred,  madame,"  said  Minard,  "for  the 
Thuilliers  are  not  the  dupes  of  that  adventurer.  But  he 
has  made  himself  necessary  to  them.  Thuillier  fancies 
that  without  la  Peyrade  he  could  not  be  elected;  the 
election  is  still  doubtful,  and  they  are  sacrificing  every- 
thing to  it." 

"But  isn't  it  odious,"  cried  Madame  Phellion,  "to 
consider  such  interests  before  the  happiness  of  their 
child!" 

"Ah!"  said  Minard,  "but  Celeste  is  not  their  child, 
only  their  adopted  daughter." 

"Brigitte's,  if  you  like,"  said  Madame  Phellion;  "but 
as  for  Thuillier  —  " 

"My  good  wife,"  said  Phellion,  "no  censoriousness. 
The  good  God  has  just  sent  us  a  great  consolation;  and, 
indeed,  though  certainly  far  advanced,  this  marriage, 
about  which  I  regret  to  say  Felix  does  not  behave  with 
all  the  philosophy  I  could  desire,  may  still  not  take 
place." 

Seeing  that  Felix  shook  his  head  with  a  look  of 
incredulity,  Minard  hastened  to  say: — 

"Yes,  yes,  the  commander  is  quite  right.  Last  night 
there  was  a  hitch  about  signing  the  contract,  and  it  was 
not  signed.  You  were  not  there,  by  the  bye,  and  your 
absence  was  much  remarked  upon." 

"We  were  invited,"  said  Phellion,  "and  up  to  the  last 
moment  we  hesitated  whether  to  go  or  not.     But,  as  you 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  477 

will  readily  see,  our  position  was  a  false  one;  besides, 
Felix  —  and  I  see  now  it  must  have  been  in  consequence 
of  his  lecture  at  the  Academy  —  was  completely  worn 
out  with  fatigue  and  emotion.  To  present  ourselves 
without  him  would  have  seemed  very  singular;  therefore 
we  decided  that  it  would  be  wisest  and  best  to  absent 
ourselves." 

The  presence  of  the  man  whom  he  had  just  declared 
immortal  did  not  deter  Minarcl,  when  the  occasion  was 
thus  made  for  him,  from  plunging  eagerly  into  one  of 
the  most  precious  joys  of  bourgeois  existence,  namely, 
the  retailing  of  gossip. 

"Just  imagine!"  he  began;  "last  night  at  the 
Thuilliers'  the  most  extraordinary  things  took  place, 
one  after  another." 

First  he  related  the  curious  episode  of  pere  Picot. 
Then  he  told  of  the  hearty  approbation  given  to  Felix's 
conduct  by  the  Abbe  Gondrin,  and  the  desire  the  young 
preacher  had  expressed  to  meet  him. 

"I'll  go  and  see  him,"  said  Felix;  "do  you  know 
where  he  lives  ?  " 

"Rue  de  la  Madeleine,  No.  8,"  replied  Minard.  "But 
the  great  event  of  the  evening  was  the  spectacle  of  that 
fine  company  assembled  to  listen  to  the  marriage-con- 
tract, and  waiting  in  expectation  a  whole  hour  for  the 
notary,  who  —  never  came !  " 

"Then  the  contract  was  not  signed?"  said  Felix, 
eagerly. 

"Not  even  read,  my  friend.  Suddenly  some  one  came 
in  and  told  Brigitte  that  the  notary  had  started  for 
Brussels." 

"Ah!  no  doubt,"  said  Phellion,  naively;  "some  very 
important  business." 

"Most  important,"  replied  Minard;  "a  little  bank- 
ruptcy of  five  hundred  thousand  francs  which  the  gentle- 
man leaves  behind  him." 


478  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"But  who  is  this  public  officer,"  demanded  Phellion, 
4 'so  recreant,  in  this  scandalous  manner,  to  the  sacred 
duties  of  his  calling?  " 

"Parbleu!  your  neighbor  in  the  rue  Saint-Jacques,  the 
notary  Dupuis." 

"What!  "  said  Madame  Phellion,  "that  pious  man? 
Why,  he  is  churchwarden  of  the  parish!  " 

"Eh!  maclame,  those  are  the  very  ones,"  said  Minard, 
"to  run  off  —  there  are  many  precedents  for  that." 

"But,"  said  Phellion,  "such  news  cast  suddenly  among 
the  company  must  have  fallen  like  a  thunderbolt." 

"Especially,"  said  Minard,  "as  it  was  brought  in  the 
most  unexpected  and  singular  manner." 

"Tell  us  all  about  it,"  said  Madame  Phellion,  with 
animation. 

"Well,  it  seems,"  continued  Minard,  "that  this  cant- 
ing swindler  had  charge  of  the  savings  of  a  number  of 
servants,  and  that  Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade  —  because, 
you  see,  they  are  all  of  a  clique,  these  pious  people  — 
was  in  the  habit  of  recruiting  clients  for  him  in  that 
walk  of  life  —  " 

"I  always  said  so!  "  interrupted  Madame  Phellion. 
"I  knew  that  Provengal  was  no  good  at  all." 

"It  seems,"  continued  the  mayor,  "that  he  had  placed  in 
Dupuis's  hands  all  the  savingsof  an  old  housekeeper,  pious 
herself,  amounting  to  a  pretty  little  sum.  Faith!  I  think 
myself  it  was  worth  some  trouble.  How  much  do  you  sup- 
pose it  was?  Twenty-five  thousand  francs,' if  you  please! 
This  housekeeper,  whose  name  is  Madame  Lambert  —  " 

"Madame  Lambert!  "  cried  Felix;  "why,  that 's  Mon- 
sieur Picot's  housekeeper;  close  cap,  pale*  thin  face, 
speaks  always  with  her  eyes  lowered,  shows  no  hair?" 

"That's  she,"  said  Minard, —  "a  regular  hypocrite!  " 

"Twenty-five  thousand  francs  of  savings!  "  said  Felix. 
"I  don't  wonder  that  poor  pere  Picot  is  always  out  of 
money." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  479 

"And  that  some  one  had  to  meddle  with  the  sale  of 
his  book,"  said  Minard,  slyly.  "However  that  may  be, 
you  can  imagine  that  the  woman  was  in  a  fine  state  of 
mind  on  hearing  of  the  flight  of  the  notary.  Off  she  went 
to  la  Peyrade's  lodgings;  there  she  was  told  he  was  din- 
ing at  the  Thuilliers' ;  to  the  Thuilliers'  she  came,  after 
running  about  the  streets  —  for  they  did  n't  give  her  quite 
the  right  address — till  ten  o'clock;  but  she  got  there 
while  the  company  were  still  sitting  round  waiting  for 
the  notary,  and  gaping  at  each  other,  no  one  knowing 
what  to  say  and  do,  for  neither  Brigitte  nor  Thuillier 
have  faculty  enough  to  get  out  of  such  a  scrape  with 
credit;  and  we  all  missed  the  voice  of  Madame  de 
Godollo  and  the  talent  of  Madame  Phellion." 

"Oh!  you  are  too  polite,  Monsieur  le  maire,"  said 
Madame  Phellion,  bridling. 

"Well,  as  I  said,"  continued  Minard,  "at  ten  o'clock 
Madame  Lambert  reached  the  antechamber  of  Monsieur 
the  general-councillor,  and  there  she  asked,  in  great 
excitement,  to  see  la  Peyrade." 

"That  was  natural,"  said  Phellion;  "he  being  the 
intermediary  of  the  investment,  this  woman  had  a  right 
to  question  him." 

"You  should  just  have  seen  that  Tartuffe!  "  continued 
Minard.  "He  had  no  sooner  gone  out  than  he  returned, 
bringing  the  news.  As  everybody  was  longing  to  get 
away,  there  followed  a  general  helter-skelter.  And  then 
what  does  our  man  do?  He  goes  back  to  Madame 
Lambert,  who  was  crying  that  she  was  ruined!  she  was 
lost!  —  which  might  very  well  be  true,  but  it  might  also 
be  only  a  scene  arranged  between  them  in  presence  of 
the  company,  whom  the  woman's  outcries  detained  in 
the  antechamber.  '  Don't  be  anxious,  my  good  woman,' 
said  la  Peyrade;  '  the  investment  was  made  at  your 
request,  consequently,  I  owe  you  nothing;  but  it  is 
enough  that  the  money  passed  through  my  hands  to  make 


480  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

my  conscience  tell  me  I  am  responsible.  If  the  notary's 
assets  are  not  enough  to  pay  you  I  will  do  so.' " 

"Yes,"  said  Phellion,  "that  was  my  idea  as  you  told 
it;  the  intermediary  is  or  ought  to  be  responsible.  I 
should  not  have  hesitated  to  do  as  Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade 
did,  and  I  do  not  think  that  after  such  conduct  as  that 
he  ought  to  be  taxed  with  Jesuitism." 

"Yes,  you  would  have  done  so,"  said  Minard,  "and 
so  should  I,  but  we  should  n't  have  done  it  with  a  brass 
band;  we  should  have  paid  our  money  quietly,  like  gentle- 
men. But  this  electoral  manager,  how  is  he  going  to 
pay  it?     Out  of  the  dot f  " 

At  this  moment  the  little  page  entered  the  room  and 
gave  a  letter  to  Felix  Phellion.  It  came  from  pere 
Picot,  and  was  written  at  his  dictation  by  the  hand  of 
Madame  Lambert,  for  which  reason  we  will  not  repro- 
duce the  orthography.  The  writing  of  Madame  Lambert 
was  of  those  that  can  never  be  forgotten  when  once  seen. 
Recognizing  it  instantly,  Felix  hastened  to  say:  — 

"A  letter  from  the  professor;"  then,  before  breaking 
the  seal,  he  added,  "Will  you  permit  me,  Monsieur  le 
maire." 

"He'll  rate  you  finely,"  said  Minard,  laughing.  "  I 
never  saw  anything  so  comical  as  his  wrath  last  night." 

Felix,  as  he  read  the  letter,  smiled  to  himself.  When 
he  had  finished  it,  he  passed  it  to  his  father,  saying:  — 

"Read  it  aloud  if  you  like." 

Whereupon,  with  his  solemn  voice  and  manner,  Phellion 
read  as  follows :  — 

My  dear  Felix,  —  I  have  just  received  your  note  ;  it  came 
in  the  nick  of  time,  for  I  was,  as  they  say,  in  a  fury  with  you. 
You  tell  me  that  you  were  guilty  of  that  abuse  of  confidence 
(about  which  I  intended  to  write  you  a  piece  of  my  mind)  in 
order  to  give  a  knock-down  blow  to  my  relations  by  proving  that 
a  man  capable  of  making  such  complicated  calculations  as  your 
discovery  required  was  not  a  man  to  put  in  a  lunatic  asylum  or 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  481 

drag  before  a  judiciary  council.  That  argument  pleases  me, 
and  it  makes  such  a  good  answer  to  the  infamous  proceedings 
of  my  relations  that  I  praise  you  for  having  had  the  idea.  But 
you  sold  it  to  me,  that  argument,  pretty  dear  when  you  put  me 
in  company  with  a  star,  for  you  know  very  well  that  propinquity 
would  n't  please  me  at  all.  It  is  not  at  my  age,  and  after  solving 
the  great  problem  of  perpetual  motion,  that  a  man  could  take 
up  with  such  rubbish  as  that,  —  good  only  for  boys  and  green- 
horns like  you  ;  and  that  is  what  I  have  taken  the  liberty  this 
morning  to  go  and  tell  the  minister  of  public  instruction,  by 
whom  I  must  say  I  was  received  with  the  most  perfect  urbanity. 
I  asked  him  to  see  whether,  as  he  had  made  a  mistake  and  sent 
them  to  the  wrong  address,  he  could  not  take  back  his  cross  and 
his  pension,  —  though  to  be  sure,  as  I  told  him,  I  deserved  them 
for  other  things. 

"  The  government,"  he  replied,  "  is  not  in  the  habit  of  making 
mistakes ;  what  it  does  is  always  properly  done,  and  it  never 
annuls  an  ordinance  signed  by  the  hand  of  his  Majesty.  Your 
great  labors  have  deserved  the  two  favors  the  King  has  granted 
you ;  it  is  a  long-standing  debt,  which  I  am  happy  to  pay  off  in 
his  name." 

"  But  Felix  ?  "  I  said ;  "  because  after  all  for  a  young  man  it  is 
not  such  a  bad  discovery." 

"  Monsieur  Felix  Phellion,"  replied  the  minister,  "  will  receive 
in  the  course  of  the  day  his  appointment  to  the  rank  of  Cheva- 
lier of  the  Legion  of  honor  ;  I  will  have  it  signed  this  morning 
by  the  king.  Moreover,  there  is  a  vacant  place  at  the  Academy 
of  Sciences,  and  if  you  are  not  a  candidate  for  it  —  " 

"I,  in  the  Academy!  "  I  interrupted,  with  the  frankness  of 
speech  you  know  I  always  use ;  "  I  execrate  academies ;  they  are 
stiflers,  extinguishers,  assemblages  of  sloths,  idlers,  shops  with 
big  signs  and  nothing  to  sell  inside  —  " 

"  Well,  then,"  said  the  minister,  smiling,  "  I  think  that  at  the 
next  election  Monsieur  Felix  Phellion  will  have  every  chance, 
and  among  those  chances  I  count  the  influence  of  the  govern- 
ment which  is  secured  to  him." 

There,  my  poor  boy,, is  all  that  I  have  been  able  to  do  to 
reward  your  good  intentions  and  to  prove  to  you  that  I  am  no 
longer  angry.  I  think  the  relations  are  going  to  pull  a  long  face. 
Come  and  talk  about  it  to-day  at  four  o'clock,  —  for  I  don't  dine 

31 


482  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

after  bedtime,  as  I  saw  some  people  doing  last  night  in  a  house 
where  I  had  occasion  to  mention  your  talents  in  a  manner  that 
was  very  advantageous  to  you.  Madame  Lambert,  who  does 
better  with  a  saucepan  than  with  pen  and  ink,  shall  distinguish 
herself,  though  it  is  Friday,  and  she  never  lets  me  off  a  fast  day. 
But  she  has  promised  us  a  fish  dinner  worthy  of  an  archbishop, 
with  a  fine  half -bottle  of  champagne  (doubled  if  need  be)  to 
wash  it  down. 

Your  old  professor  and  friend, 

PlCOT  (NlfPOMUCENE), 

Chevalier  of  the  Legion  of  honor. 

P.  S.  —  Do  you  think  you  could  obtain  from  your  respectable 
mother  a  little  flask  of  that  old  and  excellent  cognac  you  once 
gave  me  ?  Not  a  drop  remains,  and  yesterday  I  was  forced  to 
drink  some  stuff  only  fit  to  bathe  horses'  feet,  as  I  did  not 
hesitate  to  say  to  the  beautiful  Hebe  who  served  it  to  me. 

"Of  course  he  shall  have  some,"  said  Madame  Phellion ; 
"not  a  flask,  but  a  gallon." 

"And  I,"  said  Minard,  "who  pique  myself  on  mine, 
which  did  n't  come  from  Brigitte's  grocer  either,  I  '11 
send  him  several  bottles;  but  don't  tell  him  who  sent 
them,  Monsieur  le  chevalier,  for  you  never  can  tell  how 
that  singular  being  will  take  things." 

"Wife,"  said  Phellion,  suddenly,  "get  me  my  black 
coat  and  a  white  cravat." 

"Where  are  you  going?"  asked  Madame  Phellion. 
"To  the  minister,  to  thank  him?" 

"Bring  me,  I  say,  those  articles  of  habiliment.  I 
have  an  important  visit  to  make;  and  Monsieur  le  maire 
will,  I  know,  excuse  me." 

"I  myself  must  be  off,"  said  Minard.  "I,  too,  have 
important  business,  though  it  is  n't  about  a  star." 

Questioned  in  vain  by  Felix  and  his  wife,  Phellion 
completed  his  attire  with  a  pair  of  white  gloves,  sent  for 
a  carriage,  and,  at  the  end  of  half  an  hour,  entered  the 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  483 

presence  of  Brigitte,  whom  he  found  presiding  over  the 
careful  putting  away  of  the  china,  glass,  and  silver  which 
had  performed  their  several  functions  the  night  before. 
Leaving  these  housekeeping  details,  she  received  her 
visitor. 

."Well,  papa  Phellion,"  she  said,  when  they  both  were 
seated  in  the  salon,  "you  broke  your  word  yesterday; 
you  were  luckier  than  the  rest.  Do  you  know  what  a 
trick  that  notary  played  us?" 

"I  know  all,"  said  Phellion;  "and  it  is  the  check  thus 
unexpectedly  given  to  the  execution  of  your  plans  that  I 
shall  take  for  the  text  of  the  important  conversation 
which  I  desire  to  have  with  you.  Sometimes  Providence 
would  seem  to  take  pleasure  in  counteracting  our  best- 
laid  schemes ;  sometimes,  also,  by  means  of  the  obstacles 
it  raises  in  our  path,  it  seems  to  intend  to  indicate  that 
we  are  bearing  too  far  to  the  right  or  to  the  left,  and 
should  pause  to  reflect  upon  our  way." 

"Providence!"  said  Brigitte  the  strong-minded, — 
"Providence  has  something  else  to  do  than  to  look 
after  us." 

"That  is  one  opinion,"  said  Phellion;  "but  I  myself 
am  accustomed  to  see  its  decrees  in  the  little  as  well  as 
the  great  things  of  life;  and  certainly,  if  it  had  allowed 
the  fulfilment  of  your  engagements  with  Monsieur  de  la 
Peyrade  to  be  even  partially  begun  yesterday,  you  would 
not  have  seen  me  here  to-day." 

"Then,"  said  Brigitte,  "do  you  think  that  by  default 
of  a  notary  the  marriage  will  not  take  place?  They  do 
say  that  for  want  of  a  monk  the  abbey  won't  come  to  a 
standstill." 

"Dear  lady,"  said  the  great  citizen,  "you  will  do  me 
the  justice  to  feel  that  neither  I,  nor  my  wife,  have  ever 
attempted  to  influence  your  decision;  we  have  allowed 
our  young  people  to  love  each  other  without  much  con- 
sideration as  to  where  that  attachment  would  lead  —  " 


484:  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"It  led  to  upsetting  their  minds,"  said  Brigitte; 
"that 's  what  love  is,  and  that 's  why  I  deprived  myself 
of  it." 

"What  you  say  is,  indeed,  true  of  my  unfortunate 
son,"  resumed  Phellion;  "for,  notwithstanding  the  noble 
distractions  he  has  endeavored  to  give  to  his  sorrow,  he 
is  to-day  so  miserably  overcome  by  it  that  this  morning, 
in  spite  of  the  glorious  success  he  has  just  obtained,  he 
was  speaking  to  me  of  undertaking  a  voyage  of  circum- 
navigation around  the  globe,  —  a  rash  enterprise  which 
would  detain  him  from  his  native  land  at  least  three 
years,  if,  indeed,  he  escaped  the  dangers  of  so  prolonged 
a  journey." 

"Well,"  said  Brigitte,  "it  isn't  a  bad  idea;  he'll 
return  consoled,  having  discovered  three  or  four  more 
new  stars." 

"His  present  discovery  suffices,"  said  Phellion,  with 
double  his  ordinary  gravity,  "and  it  is  under  the  auspices 
of  that  triumph,  which  has  placed  his  name  at  so  great 
a  height  in  the  scientific  world,  that  I  have  the  assurance 
to  say  to  you,  point-blank:  Mademoiselle,  I  have  come 
to  ask  you,  on  behalf  of  my  son,  who  loves  as  he  is 
beloved,  for  the  hand  in  marriage  of  Mademoiselle 
Celeste  Colleville." 

"But,  my  dear  man,"  replied  Brigitte,  "it  is  too 
late ;  remember  that  we  are  diametrically  engaged  to  la 
Peyrade." 

"It  is  never,  they  say,  too  late  to  do  well,  and  yes- 
terday it  would  have  been  in  my  judgment  too  early. 
My  son,  having  to  offer  an  equivalent  for  a  fortune, 
could  not  say  to  you  until  to-day:  '  Though  Celeste,  by 
your  generosity  has  a  dot  which  mine  is  far  from  equal- 
ling, yet  I  have  the  honor  to  be  a  member  of  the  Royal 
order  of  the  Legion  of  honor,  and  shortly,  according  to 
appearance,  I  shall  be  a  member  of  the  Royal  Academy 
of  Sciences,  one  of  the  five  branches  of  the  Institute.'  " 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  485 

"Certainly,"  said  Brigitte;  "Felix  is  getting  to  be  a 
very  pretty  match,  but  we  have  passed  our  word  to  la 
Peyrade;  the  banns  are  published  at  the  mayor's  office, 
and  unless  something  extraordinary  happens  the  con- 
tract will  be  signed.  La  Peyrade  is  very  busy  about 
Thuillier's  election,  which  he  has  now  got  into  good 
shape;  we  have  capital  engaged  with  him  in  the  affair 
of  this  newspaper;  and  it  would  be  impossible  to  go 
back  on  our  promise,  even  if  we  wished  to  do  so." 

"So,"  said  Phellion,  "in  one  of  the  rare  occasions  of 
life  when  reason  and  inclination  blend  together,  you 
think  you  must  be  guided  solely  by  the  question  of  mate- 
rial interests.  Celeste,  as  we  know,  has  no  inclination 
for  Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade.     Brought  up  with  Felix  —  " 

"Brought  up  with  Felix!  "  interrupted  Brigitte.  "She 
was  given  a  period  of  time  to  choose  between  Monsieur 
de  la  Peyrade  and  your  son,  —  that  *s  how  we  coerce  her, 
if  you  please,  —  and  she  would  not  take  Monsieur  Fe'lix, 
whose  atheism  is  too  well  known." 

"You  are  mistaken,  mademoiselle,  my  son  is  not  an 
atheist;  for  Voltaire  himself  doubted  if  there  could  be 
atheists ;  and  no  later  than  yesterday,  in  this  house,  an 
ecclesiastic,  as  admirable  for  his  talents  as  for  his  vir- 
tues, after  making  a  magnificent  eulogy  of  my  son, 
expressed  the  desire  to  know  him." 

" Parbleu!  yes,  to  convert  him,"  said  Brigitte.  "But 
as  for  this  marriage,  I  am  sorry  to  tell  you  that  the 
mustard  is  made  too  late  for  the  dinner;  Thuillier  will 
never  renounce  his  la  Peyrade." 

"Mademoiselle,"  said  Phellion,  rising,  "I  feel  no 
humiliation  for  the  useless  step  I  have  this  day  taken; 
I  do  not  even  ask  you  to  keep  it  secret,  for  I  shall  myself 
mention  it  to 'our  friends  and  acquaintances." 

"Tell  it  to  whom  you  like,  my  good  man,"  replied 
Brigitte,  acrimoniously.  "Because  your  son  has  dis- 
covered a  star  —  if,  indeed,  he  did  discover  it,  and  not 


486  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

that  old  fool  the  government  decorated  —  do  yon  expect 
him  to  marry  a  daughter  of  the  King  of  the  French?  " 

"Enough,"  said  Phellion;  "we  will  say  no  more.  I 
might  answer  that,  without  depreciating  the  Thuilliers, 
the  Orleans  family  seem  to  me  more  distinguished;  but 
I  do  not  like  to  introduce  acerbity  into  the  conversa- 
tion, and  therefore,  begging  you  to  receive  the  assurance 
of  my  humble  respects,  I  retire." 

So  saying,  he  made  his  exit  majestically,  and  left 
Brigitte  with  the  arrow  of  his  comparison,  discharged 
after  the  manner  of  the  Parthians  in  extremis,  sticking  in 
her  mind,  and  she  herself  in  a  temper  all  the  more  savage 
because  already,  the  evening  before,  Madame  Thuillier, 
after  the  guests  were  gone,  had  the  incredible  audacity 
to  say  something  in  favor  of  Felix.  Needless  to  relate 
that  the  poor  helot  was  roughly  put  down  and  told  to 
mind  her  own  business.  But  this  attempt  at  a  will  of 
her  own  in  her  sister-in-law  had  already  put  the  old  maid 
in  a  vile  humor,  and  Phellion,  coming  to  reopen  the 
subject,  exasperated  her.  Josephine,  the  cook,  and  the 
"male  domestic,"  received  the  after-clap  of  the  scene 
which  had  just  taken  place.  Brigitte  found  that  in  her 
absence  everything  had  been  done  wrong,  and  putting 
her  own  hand  to  the  work,  she  hoisted  herself  o.n  a  chair, 
at  the  risk  of  her  neck,  to  reach  the  upper  shelves  of  the 
closet,  where  her  choicest  china,  for  gala  days,  was 
carefully  kept  under  lock  and  key. 

This  day,  which  for  Brigitte  began  so  ill,  was,  beyond 
all  gainsaying,  one  of  the  stormiest  and  most  portentous 
of  this  narrative. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  487 


XIV. 


A    STORMY   DAY. 


As  an  exact  historian,  we  must  go  back  and  begin  the 
day  at  six  in  the  morning,  when  we  can  see  Madame 
Thuillier  going  to  the  Madeleine  to  hear  the  mass  that  the 
Abbe  Gondrin  was  in  the  habit  of  saying  at  that  hour, 
and  afterwards  approaching  the  holy  table,  —  a  viaticum 
which  pious  souls  never  fail  to  give  themselves  when  it 
is  in  their  minds  to  accomplish  some  great  resolution. 

About  mid-day  the  abbe  received  a  visit  in  his  own 
home  from  Madame  Thuillier  and  Celeste.  The  poor 
child  wanted  a  little  development  of  the  words  by  which 
the  priest  had  given  security,  the  evening  before,  in 
Brigitte's  salon,  for  the  eternal  welfare  of  Felix  Phellion. 
It  seemed  strange  to  the  mind  of  this  girl-theologian 
that,  without  practising  religion,  a  soul  could  be  received 
into  grace  by  the  divine  justice;  for  surely  the  anathema 
is  clear :  Out  of  the  Church  there  is  no  salvation. 

"My  dear  child,"  said  the  Abbe  Gondrin,  "learn  to 
understand  that  saying  which  seems  to  you  so  inexo- 
rable. It  is  more  a  saying  of  thanksgiving  for  those  who 
have  the  happiness  to  live  within  the  pale  of  our  holy 
mother  the  Church  than  a  malediction  upon  those  who 
have  the  misfortune  to  live  apart  from  her.  God  sees 
to  the  depths  of  all  hearts;  he  knows  his  elect;  and  so 
great  is  the  treasure  of  his  goodness  that  to  none  is  it 
given  to  limit  its  riches  and  its  munificence.  Who  shall 
dare  to  say  to  God :  Thou  wilt  be  generous  and  munifi- 
cent so  far  and  no  farther.  Jesus  Christ  forgave  the 
woman  in  adultery,  and  on  the  cross  he  promised  heaven 


488  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

to  a  thief,  in  order  to  prove  to  us  that  he  deals  with  men, 
not  according  to  human  sentiments,  but  according  to  his 
wisdom  and  his  mercy.  He  who  thinks  himself  a  Chris- 
tian may  be  in  the  eyes  of  God  an  idolater;  and  another 
who  is  thought  a  pagan,  may,  by  his  feelings  and  his 
actions  be,  without  his  own  knowledge,  a  Christian. 
Our  holy  religion  has  this  that  is  divine  about  it;  all 
grandeur,  all  heroism  are  but  the  practice  of  its  precepts. 
I  was  saying  yesterday  to  Monsieur  de  la  Peyrade  that 
pure  souls  must  be,  in  course  of  time,  its  inevitable  con- 
quest. It  is  all-important  to  give  them  their  just  credit; 
that  is  a  confidence  which  returns  great  dividends ;  and, 
besides,  charity  commands  it." 

"Ah!  my  God!  "  cried  Celeste,  "to  learn  that  too  late! 
I,  who  could  have  chosen  between  Felix  and  Monsieur 
de  la  Peyrade,  and  did  not  dare  to  follow  the  ideas  of 
my  heart!  Oh!  Monsieur  l'abbe,  could  n't  you  speak  to 
my  mother?     Your  advice  is  always  listened  to." 

"Impossible,  my  dear  child,"  replied  the  vicar.  "If 
I  had  the  direction  of  Madame  Colleville's  conscience  I 
might  perhaps  say  a  word,  but  we  are  so  often  accused 
of  meddling  imprudently  in  family  matters!  Be  sure 
that  my  intervention  here,  without  authority  or  right, 
would  do  you  more  harm  than  good.  It  is  for  you  and 
for  those  who  love  you,"  he  added,  giving  a  look  at 
Madame  Thuillier,  "to  see  if  these  arrangements,  already 
so  far  advanced,  could  be  changed  in  the  direction  of 
your  wishes." 

It  was  written  that  the  poor  child  was  to  drink  to  the 
dregs  the  cup  she  had  herself  prepared  by  her  intoler- 
ance. As  the  abbe  finished  speaking,  his  housekeeper 
came  in  to  ask  if  he  would  receive  Monsieur  Felix 
Phellion.  Thus,  like  the  Charter  of  1830,  Madame  de 
Godollo's  officious  falsehood  was  turned  into  truth. 

"Go  this  way,"  he  said  hastily,  showing  his  two  peni- 
tents out  by  a  private  corridor. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  489 

Life  has  such  strange  encounters  that  it  does  some- 
times happen  that  the  same  form  of  proceeding  must  be 
used  by  courtesans  and  by  the  men  of  God. 

"Monsieur  1'abbe,"  said  Felix  to  the  young  vicar  as 
soon  as  they  met,  "I  have  heard  of  the  kind  manner  in 
which  you  were  so  very  good  as  to  speak  of  me  in  Mon- 
sieur Thuillier's  salon  last  night,  and  I  should  have 
hastened  to  express  my  gratitude  if  another  interest  had 
not  drawn  me  to  you." 

The  Abbe  Gondrin  passed  hastily  over  the  compli- 
ments, eager  to  know  in  what  way  he  could  be  useful  to 
his  fellow-man.      # 

"With  an  intention  that  I  wish  to  think  kindly,"  replied 
Felix,  "you  were  spoken  to  yesterday  about  the  state  of 
my  soul.  Those  who  read  it  so  fluently  know  more  than 
I  do  about  my  inner  being,  for,  during  the  last  few  days 
I  have  felt  strange,  inexplicable  feelings  within  me. 
Never  have  I  doubted  God,  but,  in  contact  with  that 
infinitude  where  he  has  permitted  my  thought  to  follow 
the  traces  of  his  work  I  seem  to  have  gathered  a  sense  of 
him  less  vague,  more  immediate;  and  this  has  led  me  to 
ask  myself  whether  an  honest  and  upright  life  is  the  only 
homage  which  his  omnipotence  expects  of  me.  Never- 
theless, there  are  numberless  objections  rising  in  my 
mind  against  the  worship  of  which  you  are  the  minister; 
while  sensible  of  the  beauty  of  its  external  form  in  many 
of  its  precepts  and  practices,  I  find  myself  deterred  by 
my  reason.  I  shall  have  paid  dearly,  perhaps  by  the 
happiness  of  my  whole  life,  for  the  slowness  and  want 
of  vigor  which  I  have  shown  in  seeking  the  solution  of 
my  doubts.  I  have  now  decided  to  search  to  the  bottom 
of  them.  No  one  so  well  as  you,  Monsieur  l'abbe,  can 
help  me  to  solve  them.  I  have  come  with  confidence 
to  lay  them  before  you,  to  ask  you  to  listen  to  me,  to 
answer  me,  and  to  tell  me  by  what  studies  I  can  pursue 
the  search  for  light.     It  is  a  cruelly  afflicted  soul  that 


490  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

appeals  to  you.  Is  not  that  a  good  ground  for  the  seed 
of  your  word  ?  " 

The  Abbe  Gondrin  eagerly  protested  the  joy  with 
which,  notwithstanding  his  own  insufficiency,  he  would 
undertake  to  reply  to  the  scruples  of  conscience  in  the 
young  savant.  After  asking  him  for  a  place  in  his 
friendship,  and  telling  him  to  come  at  certain  hours  for 
conversation,  he  asked  him  to  read,  as  a  first  step,  the 
"Thoughts"  of  Pascal.  A  natural  affinity,  on  the  side 
of  science,  would,  he  believed,  be  established  between 
the  spirit  of  Pascal  and  that  of  the  young  mathematician. 

While  this  scene  was  passing,  a  scene  to  which  the 
greatness  of  the  interests  in  question  and  the  moral  and 
intellectual  elevation  of  the  personages  concerned  in  it 
gave  a  character  of  grandeur  which,  like  all  reposeful, 
tranquil  aspects,  is  easier  far  to  comprehend  than  to 
reproduce,  another  scene,  of  sharp  and  bitter  discord, 
that  chronic  malady  of  bourgeois  households,  where  the 
pettiness  of  minds  and  passions  gives  open  way  to  it, 
was  taking  place  in  the  Thuillier  home. 

Mounted  upon  her  chair,  her  hair  in  disorder  and  her 
face  and  fingers  dirty,  Brigitte,  duster  in  hand,  was 
cleaning  the  shelves  of  the  closet,  where  she  was  replac- 
ing her  library  of  plates,  dishes,  and  sauce-boats,  when 
Flavie  came  in  and  accosted  her. 

"Brigitte,"  she  said,  "when  you  have  finished  what 
you  are  about  you  had  better  come  down  to  our  apart- 
ment, or  else  I  '11  send  Celeste  to  you;  she  seems  to  me 
to  be  inclined  to  make  trouble." 

"In  what  way?  "  asked  Brigitte,  continuing  to  dust. 

"I  think  she  and  Madame  Thuillier  went  to  see  the 
Abbe  Gondrin  this  morning,  and  she  has  been  attacking 
me  about  Felix  Phellion,  and  talks  of  him  as  if  he  were 
a  god;  from  that  to  refusing  to  marry  la  Peyrade  is  but 
a  step." 

"Those    cursed    skull-caps!"    said    Brigitte;    "they 


Thp  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  491 

meddle  in  everything!  I  didn't  want  to  invite  him,  but 
you  would  insist." 

"Yes,"  said  Flavie,  "it  was  proper." 

"Proper!  I  despise  proprieties!  "  cried  the  old  maid. 
"He's  a  maker  of  speeches;  he  said  nothing  last  night 
that  wasn't  objectionable.  Send  Celeste  to  me;  I'll 
settle  her." 

At  this  instant  a  servant  announced  to  Brigitte  the 
arrival  of  a  clerk  from  the  office  of  the  new  notary 
chosen,  in  default  of  Dupuis,  to  draw  up  the  contract. 
Without  considering  her  disorderly  appearance,  Brigitte 
ordered  him  to  be  shown  in,  but  she  made  him  the  con- 
cession of  descending  from  her  perch  instead  of  talking 
from  the  height  of  it. 

"Monsieur  Thuillier,"  said  the  clerk,  "came  to  our 
office  this  morning  to  explain  to  the  master  the  clauses 
of  the  contract  he  has  been  so  good  as  to  intrust  to  us. 
But  before  writing  down  the  stipulations,  we  are  in  the 
habit  of  obtaining  from  the  lips  of  each  donor  a  direct 
expression  of  his  or  her  intentions.  In  accordance  with 
this  rule,  Monsieur  Thuillier  told  us  that  he  gives  to 
the  bride  the  reversion,  at  his  death,  of  the  house  he 
inhabits,  which  I  presume  to  be  this  one?" 

"Yes,"  said  Brigitte,  "that  is  the  understanding.  As 
for  me,  I  give  three  thousand  francs  a  year  in  the  Three- 
per-cents,  capital  and  interest;  but  the  bride  is  married 
under  the  dotal  system." 

"That  is  so,"  said  the  clerk,  consulting  his  notes. 
Mademoiselle  Brigitte,  three  thousand  francs  a  year. 
Now,  there  is  Madame  Celeste  Thuillier,  wife  of  Louis- 
Jerome  Thuillier,  who  gives  six  thousand  in  the  Three- 
per-cents,  capital  and  interest,  and  six  thousand  more 
at  her  death." 

"All  that  is  just  as  if  the  notary  had  written  it  down," 
said  Brigitte;  "but  if  it  is  your  custom  you  can  see  my 
sister-in-law;  they  will  show  you  the  way." 


492  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

So  saying,  the  old  maid  ordered  the  "male  domestic  " 
to  take  the  clerk  to  Madame  Thuillier. 

A  moment  later  the  clerk  returned,  saying  there  was 
certainly  some  misunderstanding,  and  that  Madame 
Thuillier  declared  she  had  no  intention  of  making  any 
agreement  in  favor  of  the  marriage. 

4 'That's  a  pretty  thing!  "  cried  Brigitte.  "Come  with 
me,  monsieur." 

Then,  like  a  hurricane,  she  rushed  into  Madame  Thuil- 
lier' s  chamber;  the  latter  was  pale  and  trembling. 

"What 's  this  you  have  told  monsieur?  —  that  you  give 
nothing  to  Celeste's  dot?  " 

"Yes,"  said  the  slave,  declaring  insurrection,  although 
in  a  shaking  voice;  "my  intention  is  to  do  nothing." 

"Your  intention,"  said  Brigitte,  scarlet  with  anger, 
"is  something  new." 

"That  is  my  intention,"  was  all  the  rebel  replied. 

"At  least  you  will  give  your  reasons?  " 

"The  marriage  does  not  please  me." 

"Ha!  and  since  when?" 

"It  is  not  necessary  that  monsieur  should  listen  to 
our  discussion,"  said  Madame  Thuillier;  "it  will  not 
appear  in  the  contract." 

"No  wonder  you  are  ashamed  of  it,"  said  Brigitte; 
"the  appearance  you  are  making  is  not  very  flattering  to 
you —  Monsieur,"  she  continued,  addressing  the  clerk, 
"it  is  easier,  is  it  not,  to  mark  out  passages  in  a  con- 
tract than  to  add  them  ?  " 

The  clerk  made  an  affirmative  sign. 

"Then  put  in  what  you  were  told  to  write;  later,  if 
madame  persists,  the  clause  can  be  stricken  out." 

The  clerk  bowed  and  left  the  room. 

When  the  two  sisters-in-law  were  alone  together, 
Brigitte  began. 

"Ah  ?a/"  she  cried,  "have  you  lost  your  head?  What 
is  this  crotchet  you  've  taken  into  it? " 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  493 

"Tt  is  not  a  crotchet;  it  is  a  fixed  idea." 

"Which  you  got  from  the  Abbe  Gondrin;  you  dare 
not  deny  that  you  went  to  see  him  with  Celeste." 

"It  is  true  that  Celeste  and  I  saw  our  director  this 
morning,  but  I  did  not  open  my  lips  to  him  about  what 
I  intended  to  do." 

"  So,  then,  it  is  in  your  own  empty  head  that  this 
notion  sprouted  ? " 

"Yes.  As  I  told  you  yesterday,  I  think  Celeste  can 
be  more  suitably  married,  and  my  intention  is  not  to  rob 
myself  for  a  marriage  of  which  I  disapprove." 

"  You  disapprove!  Upon  my  word!  are  we  all  to  take 
madame's  advice?" 

"I  know  well,"  replied  Madame  Thuillier,  "that  I 
count  for  nothing  in  this  house.  So  far  as  I  am  con- 
cerned, I  have  long  accepted  my  position;  but,  when  the 
matter  concerns  the  happiness  of  a  child  I  regard  as  my 
own  —  " 

"Parbleu  !  "  cried  Brigitte,  "you  never  knew  how  to 
have  one;  for,  certainly,  Thuillier  —  " 

"Sister,"  said  Madame  Thuillier,  with  dignity,  "I 
took  the  sacrament  this  morning,  and  there  are  some 
things  I  cannot  listen  to." 

"There's  a  canting  hypocrite  for  you!  "  cried  Brigitte; 
"playing  the  saint,  and  bringing  trouble  into  families! 
And  you  think  to  succeed,  do  you?  Wait  till  Thuillier 
comes  home,  and  he  '11  shake  this  out  of  you." 

By  calling  in  the  marital  authority  in  support  of  her 
own,  Brigitte  showed  weakness  before  the  unexpected 
resistance  thus  made  to  her  inveterate  tyranny.  Madame 
Thuillier' s  calm  words,  which  became  every  moment  more 
resolute,  baffled  her  completely,  and  she  found  no  re- 
source but  insolence. 

"A  drone!  "  she  cried;  "a  helpless  good-for-nothing! 
who  can't  even  pick  up  her  own  handkerchief!  that  thing 
wants  to  be  mistress  of  this  house! " 


494  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"I  wish  so  little  to  be  its  mistress,"  said  Madame 
Thuillier,  "that  last  night  I  allowed  you  to  silence  nie 
after  the  first  words  I  had  said  in  behalf  of  Celeste.  But 
I  am  mistress  of  my  own  property,  and  as  I  believe  that 
Celeste  will  be  wretched  in  this  marriage,  I  keep  it  to 
use  as  may  seem  best  to  me." 

"Your  property,  indeed!  "  said  Brigitte,  with  a  sneer. 

"Yes,  that  which  I  received  from  my  father  and  my 
mother,  and  which  I  brought  as  my  dot  to  Monsieur 
Thuillier." 

"And  pray  who  invested  it,  this  property,  and  made 
it  give  you  twelve  thousand  francs  a  year?" 

"I  have  never  asked  you  for  any  account  of  it,"  said 
Madame  Thuillier,  gently.  "If  it  had  been  lost  in  the 
uses  you  made  of  it  you  would  never  have  heard  a  single 
complaint  from  me;  but  it  has  prospered,  and  it  is  just 
that  I  should  have  the  benefit.  It  is  not  for  myself  that 
I  reserve  it." 

"Perhaps  not;  if  this  is  the  course  you  take,  it  is  not 
at  all  sure  that  you  and  I  will  go  out  of  the  same  door 
long." 

"Do  you  mean  that  Monsieur  Thuillier  will  send  me 
away?  He  must  have  reasons  for  doing  that,  and,  thank 
God!  I  have  been  a  wife  above  reproach." 

"Viper!  hypocrite!  heartless  creature !"  cried  Brigitte, 
coming  to  an  end  of  her  arguments. 

"Sister,"  said  Madame  Thuillier,  "you  are  in  my 
apartment  —  " 

"Am  I,  you  imbecile?"  cried  the  old  maid,  in  a 
paroxysm  of  anger.     "If  I  did  n't  restrain  myself  —  " 

And  she  made  a  gesture  both  insulting  and  threatening. 

Madame  Thuillier  rose  to  leave  the  room. 

"No!  you  shall  not  go  out,"  cried  Brigitte,  pushing 
her  down  into  her  chair;  "and  till  Thuillier  comes  home 
and  decides  what  he  will  do  with  you  you  '11  stay  locked 
up  here." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  495 

Just  as  Brigitte,  her  face  on  fire,  returned  to  the  room 
where  she  had  left  Madame  Colleville,  her  brother  came 
in.     He  was  radiant. 

"My  dear,"  he  said  to  the  Megaera,  not  observing  her 
fury,  "everything  is  going  on  finely;  the  conspiracy  of 
silence  is  broken;  two  papers,  the  'National'  and  a 
Carlist  journal,  have  copied  articles  from  us,  and  there  's 
a  little  attack  in  a  ministerial  paper." 

"Well,  all  is  not  going  on  finely  here,"  said  Brigitte, 
"and  if  it  continues,  I  shall  leave  the  barrack." 

"Whom  are  you  angry  with  now?"  asked  Thuillier. 

"With  your  insolent  wife,  who  has  made  me  a  scene; 
I  am  trembling  all  over." 

"Celeste  make  you  a  scene!"  said  Thuillier;  "then 
it  is  the  very  first  time  in  her  life." 

"There  's  a  beginning  to  everything,  and  if  you  don't 
bring  her  to  order  —  " 

"But  what  was  it  about  —  this  scene?  " 

"About  madame's  not  choosing  that  laPeyrade  should 
marry  her  goddaughter;  and  out  of  spite,  to  prevent  the 
marriage,  she  refuses  to  give  anything  in  the  contract." 

"Come,  be  calm,"  said  Thuillier,  not  disturbed  him- 
self, the  admission  of  the  "Echo"  into  the  polemic  mak- 
ing another  Pangloss  of  him.     "I  '11  settle  all  that." 

"You,  Flavie,"  said  Brigitte,  when  Thuillier  had 
departed  to  his  wife,  "you  will  do  me  the  pleasure  to 
go  down  to  your  own  apartment,  and  tell  Mademoiselle 
Celeste  that  I  don't  choose  to  see  her  now,  because  if  she 
made  me  any  irritating  answer  I  might  box  her  ears. 
You'll  tell  her  that  I  don't  like  conspiracies;  that  she 
was  left  at  liberty  to  choose  Monsieur  Phellion  junior  if 
she  wanted  him,  and  she  did  not  want  him;  that  the 
matter  is  now  all  arranged,  and  that  if  she  does  not  wish 
to  see  her  dot  reduced  to  what  you  are  able  to  give  her, 
which  isn't  as  much_as  a  bank-messenger  could  carry  in 
his  waistcoat  pocket  —  " 


496  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 

"But,  my  dear  Brigitte,"  interrupted  Flavie,  turning 
upon  her  at  this  impertinence,  "you  may  dispense  with 
reminding  us  in  that  harsh  way  of  our  poverty;  for,  after 
all,  we  have  never  asked  you  for  anything,  and  we  pay 
our  rent  punctually;  and  as  for  the  dot,  Monsieur  Felix 
Phellion  is  quite  ready  to  take  Celeste  with  no  more  than 
a  bank-messenger  could  carry  in  his  bag." 

And  she  emphasized  the  last  word  by  her  way  of 
pronouncing  it. 

"Ha!  so  you  too  are  going  to  meddle  in  this,  are 
you?"  cried  Brigitte.  "Very  good;  go  and  fetch  him, 
your  Felix.  I  know,  my  little  woman,  that  this  mar- 
riage has  never  suited  you ;  it  is  disagreeable  to  be  noth- 
ing more  than  a  mother  to  your  son-in-law." 

Flavie  had  recovered  the  coolness  she  had  lost  for  an 
instant,  and  without  replying  to  this  speech  she  merely 
shrugged  her  shoulders. 

At  this  moment  Thuillier  returned;  his  air  of  beati- 
tude had  deserted  him. 

"My  dear  Brigitte,"  he  said  to  his  sister,  "you 
have  a  most  excellent  heart,  but  at  times  you  are  so 
violent  —  " 

"Ho!  "  said  the  old  maid,  "am  I  to  be  arraigned  on 
this  side  too?  " 

"I  certainly  do  not  blame  you  for  the  cause  of  the 
trouble,  and  I  have  just  rebuked  Celeste  for  her  assump- 
tion; but  there  are  proper  forms  that  must  be  kept." 

"Forms!  what  are  you  talking  about?  What  forms 
have  I  neglected?" 

"But,  my  dear  friend,  to  raise  your  hand  against  your 
sister!  " 

"I,-  raise  my  hand  against  that  imbecile?  What  non- 
sense you  talk!  " 

"And  besides,"  continued  Thuillier,  "a  woman  of 
Celeste's  age  can't  be  kept  in  prison." 

"Your  wife!  —  have  I  put  her  in  prison? " 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  497 

"You  can't  deny  it,  for  I  found  the  door  of  her  room 
double-locked." 

"Parbleu  !  all  this  because  in  my  anger  at  the  infamous 
things  she  was  spitting  at  me  I  may  have  turned  the  key 
of  the  door  without  intending  it." 

"Come,  come,"  said  Thuillier,  "these  are  not  proper 
actions  for  people  of  our  class." 

"Oh!  so  it  is  I  who  am  to  blame,  is  it?  Well,  my 
lad,  some  day  you  '11  remember  this,  and  we  shall  see 
how  your  household  will  get  along  when  I  have  stopped 
taking  care  of  it." 

"You'll  always  take  care  of  it,"  said  Thuillier. 
"Housekeeping  is  your  very  life;  you  will  be  the  first 
to  get  over  this  affair." 

"We'll  see  about  that,"  said  Brigitte;  "after  twenty 
years  of  devotion,  to  be  treated  like  the  lowest  of  the 
low!  " 

And  rushing  to  the  door,  which  she  slammed  after  her 
with  violence,  she  went  away. 

Thuillier  was  not  disturbed  by  this  exit. 

"Were  you  there,  Flavie,"  he  asked,  "when  the  scene 
took  place  ?  " 

"No,  it  happened  in  Celeste's  room.  What  did  she 
do  to  her?" 

"What  I  said, —  raised  her  hand  to  her  and  locked  her 
in  like  a  child.  Celeste  may  certainly  be  rather  dull- 
minded,  but  there  are  limits  that  must  not  be  passed." 

"She  is  not  always  pleasant,  that  good  Brigitte,"  said 
Flavie;  "she  and  I  have  just  had  a  little  set-to." 

"Oh,  well,"  said  Thuillier,  "it  will  all  pass  off.  I 
want  to  tell  you,  my  dear  Flavie,  what  fine  success  we 
have  had  this  morning.  The  '  National  '  quotes  two 
whole  paragraphs  of  an  article  in  which  there  were 
several  sentences  of  mine." 

Thuillier  was  again  interrupted  in  the  tale  of  his  great 

political  and  literary  success,—  this  time  by  the  entrance 

of  Josephine  the  cook. 

32 


498  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Can  moDsieur  tell  me  where  to  find  the  key  of  the 
great  trunk?"  she  said. 

"What  do  you  want  with  it?  "  asked  Thuillier. 
"Mademoiselle  told  me  to  take  it  to  her  room." 
"What  for?" 

"Mademoiselle  must  be  going  to  make  a  journey.  She 
is  getting  her  linen  out  of  the  drawers,  and  her  gowns 
are  on  the  bed." 

"Another  piece  of  nonsense!  "  said  Thuillier.  "Flavie, 
go  and  see  what  she  has  in  her  head." 

"Not  I,"  said  Madame  Coleville;  "go  yourself.  In 
her  present  state  of  exasperation  she  might  beat  me." 

"And  my  stupid  wife,  who  must  needs  raise  a  fuss 
about  the  contract!  "  cried  Thuillier.  "She  really  must 
have  said  something  pretty  sharp  to  turn  Brigitte  off  her 
hinges  like  this." 

"Monsieur  has  not  told  me  where  to  find  the  key," 
persisted  Josephine. 

"I  don't  know  anything  about  it,"  said  Thuillier, 
crossly;  "go  and  look  for  it,  or  else  tell  her  it  is 
lost." 

"Oh,  yes!  "  said  Josephine,  "it  is  likely  I  'd  dare  to 
go  and  tell  her  that." 

Just  then  the  outer  door-bell  rang. 

"No  doubt  that's  la  Peyrade,"  said  Thuillier,  in  a 
tone  of  satisfaction. 

The  Provencal  appeared  a  moment  later. 

"Faith,  my  dear  friend,"  cried  Thuillier,  "it  is  high 
time  you  came;  the  house  is  in  revolution,  all  about 
you,  and  it  needs  your  silvery  tongue  to  bring  it  back 
to  peace  and  quietness." 

Then  he  related  to  his  assistant  editor  the  circum- 
stances of  the  civil  war  which  had  broken  out. 

La  Peyrade  turned  to  Madame  Colleville. 

"I  think,"  he  said,  "that  under  the  circumstances  in 
which  we  now  stand  there  is  no  impropriety  in  my  ask- 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  499 

ing  for  an  interview  of  a  few  moments  with  Mademoiselle 
Colleville." 

In  this  the  Provencal  showed  his  usual  shrewd  ability; 
he  saw  that  in  the  mission  of  pacification  thus  given  to 
him  Celeste  Colleville  was  the  key  of  the  situation. 

"I  will  send  for  her,  and  we  will  leave  you  alone 
together,"  said  Plavie. 

"My  dear  Thuillier,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "you  must, 
without  any  violence,  let  Mademoiselle  Celeste  know 
that  her  consent  must  be  given  without  further  delay; 
make  her  think  that  this  was  the  purpose  for  which  you 
have  sent  for  her;  then  leave  us;  I  will  do  all  the  rest." 

The  man-servant  was  sent  down  to  the  entresol  with 
orders  to  tell  Celeste  that  her  godfather  wished  to  speak 
to  her.  As  soon  as  she  appeared,  Thuillier  said,  to  carry 
out  the  programme  which  had  been  dictated  to  him :  — 

"My  dear,  your  mother  has  told  us  things  that  astonish 
us.  Can  it  be  true  that  with  your  contract  almost  signed, 
you  have  not  yet  decided  to  accept  the  marriage  we  have 
arranged  for  you?" 

"Godfather,"  said  Celeste,  rather  surprised  at  this 
abrupt  summons,  "I  think  I  did  not  say  that  to  mamma." 

"Did  you  not  just  now,"  said  Flavie,  "praise  Monsieur 
Felix  Phellion  to  me  in  the  most  extravagant  manner?" 

"I  spoke  of  Monsieur  Phellion  as  all  the  world  is 
speaking  of  him." 

"Come,  come,"  said  Thuillier,  with  authority,  "let  us 
have  no  equivocation ;  do  you  refuse,  yes  or  no,  to  marry 
Monsieur  cle  la  Peyrade?  " 

"Dear,  good  friend,"  said  la  Peyrade,  intervening, 
"your  way  of  putting  the  question  is  rather  too  abrupt, 
and,  in  my  presence,  especially,  it  seems  to  me  out  of 
place.  In  my  position  as  the  most  interested  person,  will 
you  allow  me  to  have  an  interview  with  mademoiselle, 
which,  indeed,  has  now  become  necessary?  This  favor 
I  am  Sure  will   not   be   refused  by  Madame   Colleville, 


500  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Under  present  circumstances,  there  can  surely  be  nothing 
in  my  request  to  alarm  her  maternal  prudence." 

"I  would  certainly  yield  to  it,"  said  FLavie,  "if  I  did 
not  fear  that  these  discussions  might  seem  to  open  a 
question  which  is  irrevocably  decided." 

"But,  my  dear  madame,  I  have  the  strongest  desire 
that  Mademoiselle  Celeste  shall  remain,  until  the  very 
last  moment,  the  mistress  of  her  own  choice.  I  beg  you, 
therefore,. to  grant  my  request." 

"So  be  it!  "  said  Madame  Colleville;  "you  think  your- 
self very  clever,  but  if  you  let  that  girl  twist  you  round 
her  finger,  so  much  the  worse  for  you.  Come,  Thuillier, 
since  we  are  de  trop  here." 

As  soon  as  the  pair  were  alone  together,  la  Peyrade 
drew  up  a  chair  for  Celeste,  and  took  one  himself, 
saying :  — 

"You  will,  I  venture  to  believe,  do  me  the  justice  to 
say  that  until  to-day  I  have  never  annoyed  you  with  the 
expression  of  my  sentiments.  I  was  aware  of  the  inclin- 
ations of  your  heart,  and  also  of  the  warnings  of  your 
conscience.  I  hoped,  after  a  time,  to  make  myself 
acceptable  as  a  refuge  from  those  two  currents  of  feel- 
ing; but,  at  the  point  which  we  have  now  reached,  I 
think  it  is  not  either  indiscreet  or  impatient  to  ask  you 
to  let  me  know  plainly  what  course  you  have  decided 
upon." 

"Monsieur,"  replied  Celeste,  "as  you  speak  to  me  so 
kindly  and  frankly,  I  will  tell  you,  what  indeed  you 
know  already,  that,  brought  up  as  I  was  with  Monsieur 
Felix  Phellion,  knowing  him  far  longer  than  I  have 
known  you,  the  idea  of  marrying  alarmed  me  less  in 
regard  to  him  than  it  would  in  regard  to  others." 

"At  one  time,  I  believe,"  remarked  la  Peyrade,  "you 
were  permitted  to  choose  him  if  you  wished." 

"Yes,  but  at  that  time  difficulties  grew  up  between  us 
on  religious  ideas." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  501 

"And  to-day  those  difficulties  have  disappeared?  " 

"Nearly,"  replied  Celeste.  "I  am  accustomed  to  sub- 
mit to  the  judgment  of  those  who  are  wiser  than  myself, 
monsieur,  and  you  heard  yesterday  the  manner  in  which 
the  Abbe  Gondrin  spoke  of  Monsieur  Phellion." 

"God  forbid,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "that  I  should  seek  to 
invalidate  the  judgment  of  so  excellent  a  man;  but  I 
venture  to  say  to  you,  mademoiselle,  that  there  are  great 
differences  among  the  clergy;  some  are  thought  too 
stern,  some  far  too  indulgent;  moreover,  the  Abbe 
Gondrin  is  more  of  a  preacher  than  a  casuist.". 

"But,  Monsieur  Felix,"  said  Celeste,  eagerly,  "seems 
to  wish  to  fulfil  Monsieur  l'abbe's  hopes  of  him,  for  I 
know  that  he.  went  to  see  him  this  morning." 

"Ah!  "  said  la  Peyrade,  with  a  touch  of  irony,  "so  he 
really  decided  to  go  to  Pere  Anselme!  But,  admitting 
that  on  the  religious  side  Monsieur  Phellion  may  now 
become  all  that  you  expect  of  him,  have  you  reflected, 
mademoiselle,  on  the  great  event  which  has  just  taken 
place  in  his  life  ?  " 

"Undoubtedly;  and  that  is  not  a  reason  to  think  less 
of  him." 

"No,  but  it  is  a  reason  why  he  should  think  more  of 
himself.  For  the  modesty  which  was  once  the  chief 
charm  of  his  nature,  he  is  likely  to  substitute  great 
assumption,  and  you  must  remember,  mademoiselle,  that 
he  who  has  discovered  one  world  will  want  to  discover 
two;  you  will  have  the  whole  firmament  for  rival;  in 
short,  could  you  ever  be  happy  with  a  man  so  entirely 
devoted  to  science?"  , 

"You  plead  your  cause  with  such  adroitness,"  said 
Celeste,  smiling,  "that  I  think  you  might  be  as  a  lawyer 
more  disquieting  than  an  astronomer." 

"Mademoiselle,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "let  us  speak  seri- 
ously; there  is  another  and  far  more  serious  aspect  to 
the  situation.     Do  you  know  that,  at  this  moment,   in 


502  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

this  house,  and  without,  I  am  sure,  desiring  it,  you  are 
the  cause  of  most  distressing  and  regrettable  scenes?  " 

"I,  monsieur!  "  said  Celeste,  in  a  tone  of  surprise  that 
was  mingled  with  fear. 

"Yes,  concerning  your  godmother.  Through  the  ex- 
treme affection  that  she  has  for  you  she  seems  to  have 
become  another  woman;  for  the  first  time  in  her  life  she 
has  shown  a  mind  of  her  own.  With  an  energy  of  will 
which  comes  at  times  to  those  who  have  never  expended 
any,  she  declares  that  she  will  not  make  her  proposed 
liberal  gift  to  you  in  the  contract;  and  I  need  not  tell 
you  who  is  the  person  aimed  at  in  this  unexpected 
refusal." 

"But,  monsieur,  I  entreat  you  to  believe  that  I  knew 
nothing  of  this  idea  of  my  godmother." 

"I  know  that,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "and  the  matter  itself 
would  be  of  small  importance  if  Mademoiselle  Brigitte 
had  not  taken  this  attitude  of  your  godmother,  whom  she 
has  always  found  supple  to  her  will,  as  a  personal  insult 
to  herself.  Very  painful  explanations,  approaching  at 
last  to  violence,  have  taken  place.  Thuillier,  placed 
between  the  hammer  and  the  anvil,  has  been  unable  to 
stop  the  affair;  on  the  contrary,  he  has,  without  intend- 
ing it,  made  matters  worse,  till  they  have  now  arrived 
at  such  a  point  that  Mademoiselle  Brigitte  is  packing  her 
trunks  to  leave  the  house." 

"Monsieur!  what  are  you  telling  me?"  cried  Celeste, 
horrified. 

"The  truth;  and  the  servants  will  confirm  it  to  you  — 
for  I  feel  that  my  revelations  are  scarcely  believable." 

"But  it  is  impossible!  impossible!"  said  the  poor 
child,  whose  agitation  increased  with  every  word  of  the 
adroit  Provencal.  "I  cannot  be  the  cause  of  such  dread- 
ful harm." 

"That  is,  you  did  not  intend  to  be,  for  the  harm  is 
done;  and  I  pray  Heaven  it  may  not  be  irremediable." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  503 

"But  what  am  I  to  do,  good  God!"  cried  Celeste, 
wringing  her  hands. 

"I  should  answer,  without  hesitation,  sacrifice  your- 
self, mademoiselle,  if  it  were  not  that  I  should  then  be 
forced  to  play  the  painful  part  of  victimizes." 

"Monsieur,"  said  Celeste,  "you  interpret  ill  the  resis- 
tance that  I  have  made,  though,  in  fact,  I  have  scarcely 
expressed  it.  I  have  certainly  had  a  preference,  but  I 
have  never  considered  myself  in  the  light  of  a  victim ; 
and  whatever  it  is  necessary  to  do  to  restore  peace  in 
this  house  to  which  I  have  brought  trouble,  I  shall  do  it 
without  repugnance,  and  even  willingly." 

"That  would  be  for  me,"  said  la  Peyrade,  humbly, 
"more  than  I  could  dare  ask  for  myself;  but,  for  the 
result  which  we  both  seek,  I  must  tell  you  frankly  that 
something  more  is  needed.  Madame  Thuillier  has  not 
changed  her  nature  to  instantly  change  back  again  on 
the  mere  assurance  by  others  of  your  compliance.  It 
is  necessary  that  she  should  hear  from  your  own  lips 
that  you  accede  to  my  suit,  and  that  you  do  so  with 
eagerness,  —  assumed,  indeed,  but  sufficiently  well  as- 
sumed to  induce  her  to  believe  in  it." 

"So  be  it,"  said  Celeste.  "I  shall  know  how  to  seem 
smiling  and  happy.  My  godmother,  monsieur,  has  been 
a  mother  to  me;  and  for  such  a  mother,  what  is  there 
that  1  would  not  endure?  " 

The  position'  was  such,  and  Celeste  betrayed  so  art- 
lessly the  depth  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  absolute  deter- 
mination of  her  sacrifice,  that  with  any  heart  at  all  la 
Peyrade  would  have  loathed  the  part  he  was  playing; 
but  Celeste,  to  him,  was  a  means  of  ascent,  and  provided 
the  ladder  can  hold  you  and  hoist  you,  who  would  ever 
ask  if  it  cared  to  or  not?  It  was  therefore  decided  that 
Celeste  should  go  to  her  godmother  and  convince  her  of 
the  mistake  she  had  made  in  supposing  an  objection  to 
la  Peyrade  which  Celeste  had  never  intended  to  make. 


504  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Madame  Thuillier's  opposition  overcome,  all  was  once 
more  easy.  La  Peyrade  took  upon  himself  the  duty  of 
making  peace  between  the  two  sisters-in-law,  and  we  can 
well  imagine  that  he  was  not  at  a  loss  for  fine  phrases 
with  which  to  assure  the  artless  girl  of  the  devotion  and 
love  which  would  take  from  her  all  regret  for  the  moral 
compulsion  she  had  now  undergone. 

When  Celeste  went  to  her  godmother  she  found  her  by 
no  means  as  difficult  to  convince  as  she  had  expected. 
To  go  to  the  point  of  rebellion  which  Madame  Thuillier 
had  actually  reached,  the  poor  woman,  who.  was  acting 
against  her  instincts  and  against  her  nature,  had  needed 
a  tension  of  will  that,  in  her,  was  almost  superhuman. 
No  sooner  had  she  received  the  false  confidences  of  her 
goddaughter  than  the  reaction  set  in;  the  strength  failed 
her  to  continue  in  the  path  she  had  taken.  She  was 
therefore  easily  the  dupe  of  the  comedy  which  Celeste's 
tender  heart  was  made  to  play  for  la  Peyrade's  benefit. 

The  tempest  calmed  on  this  side,  the  barrister  found 
no  difficulty  in  making  Brigitte  understand  that  in  quell- 
ing the  rebellion  against  her  authority  she  had  gone  a 
little  farther  than  was  proper.  This  authority  being  no 
longer  in  danger,  Brigitte  ceased  to  be  incensed  with 
the  sister-in-law  she  had  been  on  the  point  of  beating, 
and  the  quarrel  was  settled  with  a  few  kind  words  and  a 
kiss,  poor  Celeste  paying  the  costs  of  war. 

After  dinner,  which  was  only  a  family  meal,  the 
notary,  to  whose  office  they  were  to  go  on  the  following 
day  to  sign  the  contract  (it  being  impossible  to  give  a 
second  edition  of  the  abortive  party),  made  his  appear- 
ance. He  came,  he  said,  to  submit  the  contract  to  the 
parties  interested  before  engrossing  it.  This  attention 
was  not  surprising  in  a  man  who  was  just  entering  into 
business  relations  with  so  important  a  person  as  the 
municipal  counsellor,  whom  it  was  his  interest  to  firmly 
secure  for  a  client. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  505 

La  Peyrade  was  far  too  shrewd  to  make  any  objections 
to  the  terms  of  the  contract,  which  was  now  read.  A 
few  changes  requested  by  Brigitte,  which  gave  the  new 
notary  a  high  idea  of  the  old  maid's  business  capacity, 
showed  la  Peyrade  plainly  that  more  precautions  were 
being  taken  against  him  than  were  altogether  becoming; 
but  he  was  anxious  not  to  raise  difficulties,  and  he  knew 
that  the  meshes  of  a  contract  are  never  so  close  that  a 
determined  and  clever  man  cannot  get  through  them. 
The  appointment  was  then  made  for  the  signing  of  the 
contract  the  next  day,  at  two  o'clock,  in  the  notary's 
office,  the  family  only  being  present. 

During  the  rest  of  the  evening,  taking  advantage  of 
Celeste's  pledge  to  seem  smiling  and  happy,  la  Peyrade 
played,  as  it  were,  upon  the  poor  child,  forcing  her,  by 
a  specious  exhibition  of  gratitude  and  love,  to  respond 
to  him  on  a  key  that  was  far,  indeed,  from  the  true  state 
of  a  heart  now  wholly  filled  by  Felix.  Flavie,  seeing 
the  manner  in  which  la  Peyrade  put  forth  hi&  seductions, 
was  reminded  of  the  pains  he  had  formerly  taken  to 
fascinate  herself.  "The  monster! "  she  said,  beneath 
her  breath.  But  she  was  forced  to  bear  the  torture  with 
a  good  grace ;  la  Peyrade  was  evidently  approved  by  all, 
and  in  the  course  of  the  evening  a  circumstance  came  to 
light,  showing  a  past  service  done  by  him  to  the  house 
of  Thuillier,  which  brought  his  influence  and  his  credit 
to  the  highest  point. 

Minarcl  was  announced. 

"My  dear  friends,"  he  said,  "I  have  come  to  make  a 
little  revelation  which  will  greatly  surprise  you,  and 
will,  I  think,  prove  a  lesson  to  all  of  us  when  a  question 
arises  as  to  receiving  foreigners  in  our  homes." 

"What  is  it?"  cried  Brigitte,  with  curiosity. 

"That  Hungarian  woman  you  were  so  delighted  with, 
that  Madame  Torna,  Comtesse  de  Godollo  —  " 

"Well?"  exclaimed  the  old  maid. 


506  The  Leaser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Well,"  continued  Minard,  "she  was  no  better  than 
she  should  be;  you  were  petting  in  your  house  for  two 
months  the  most  impudent  of  kept  women." 

"Who  told  you  that  tale?"  asked  Brigitte,  not  willing 
to  admit  that  she  had  fallen  into  such  a  snare. 

"Oh,  it  is  n't  a  tale,"  said  the  mayor,  eagerly.  "I 
know  the  thing  myself,  de  visn." 

"Dear  me!  do  you  frequent  such  women?"  said 
Brigitte,  resuming  the  offensive.  "That's  a  pretty 
thing!  what  would  Zelie  say  if  she  knew  it?" 

"In  the  discharge  of  my  duties,"  said  Minard,  stiffly, 
provoked  at  this  reception  of  his  news,  "I  have  seen 
your  friend,  Madame  de  Godollo,  in  company  with  others 
of  her  class." 

"How  do  you  know  it  was  she  if  you  only  saw  her," 
demanded  Brigitte. 

The  wily  Provencal  was  not  the  man  to  lose  an  occasion1 
that  fell  to  him  ready-made. 

"Monsieur  le  maire  is  not  mistaken,"  he  said,  with 
decision. 

" Tiens  !  so  you  know  her,  too,"  said  Brigitte;  "and 
you  let  us  consort  with  such  vermin?" 

"No,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "on  the  contrary.  Without 
scandal,  without  saying  a  word  to  any  one,  I  removed 
her  from  your  house.  You  remember  how  suddenly  the 
woman  left  it?  It  was  I  who  compelled  her  to  do  so; 
having  discovered  what  she  was,  I  gave  her  two  days  to 
vacate  the  premises;  threatening  her,  in  case  she  hesi- 
tated, to  tell  you  all." 

"My  dear  Theodose,"  said  Thuillier,  pressing  his 
hand,  "you  acted  with  as  much  prudence  as  decision. 
This  is  one  more  obligation  that  we  owe  to  you." 

"You  see,  mademoiselle,"  said  la  Peyrade,  addressing 
Celeste,  "the  strange  protectress  whom  a  friend  of  yours 
selected." 

"Thank  God,"  said  Madame  Thuillier.  "Felix  Phellion 
is  above  such  vile  things." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  507 

"Ah  gal  papa  Minard,  we  '11  keep  quiet  about  all  this; 
silence  is  the  word.     Will  you  take  a  cup  of  tea?  " 

"Willingly,"  replied  Minard. 

"Celeste,"  said  the  old  maid,  "ring  for  Henri,  and 
tell  him  to  put  the  large  kettle  on  the  lire." 

Though  the  visit  to  the  notary  was  not  to  be  made  till 
two  in  the  afternoon,  Brigitte  began  early  in  the  morn- 
ing of  the  next  day  what  Thuillier  called  her  ramjutge, 
a  popular  term  which  expresses  that  turbulent,  nagging, 
irritating  activity  which  La  Fontaine  has  described  so 
well  in  his  fable  of  "The  Old  Woman  and  her  Servants." 
Brigitte  declared  that  if  you  did  n't  take  time  by  the 
forelock  no  one  would  be  ready.  She  prevented  Thuillier 
from  going  to  his  office,  insisting  that  if  he  once  got  off 
she  never  should  see  him  again;  she  plagued  Josephine, 
the  cook,  about  hurrying  the  breakfast,  and  in  spite  of 
what  had  happened  the  day  before  she  scarcely  restrained 
herself  from  nagging  at  Madame  Thuillier,  who  did  not 
enter,  as  she  thought  she  should  have  done,  into  her 
favorite  maxim,   "Better  be  early  than  late." 

Presently  down  she  went  to  the  Collevilles  '  to  make 
the  same  disturbance;  and  there  she  put  her  veto  on  the 
costume,  far  too  elegant,  which  Flavie  meditated  wear- 
ing, and  told  Celeste  the  hat  and  gown  she  wished  her  to 
appear  in.  As  for  Colleville,  who  could  not,  he  declared, 
stay  away  all  the  morning  from  his  official  duties,  she 
compelled  him  to  put  on  his  dress-suit  before  he  went 
out,  made  him  set  his  watch  by  hers,  and  warned  him 
that  if  he  was  late  no  one  would  wait  for  him. 

The  amusing  part  of  it  was  that  Brigitte  herself,  after 
driving  every  one  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  came  very 
near  being  late- herself.  Under  pretext  of  aiding  others, 
independently  of  minding  her  own  business,  which,  for 
worlds,  she  would  never  have  spared  herself,  she  had  put 
her  fingers  and  eyes  into  so  many  things  that  they  ended 
by  overwhelming  her.     However,  she  ascribed  the  delay 


508  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

in  which  she  was  almost  caught  to  the  hairdresser,  whom 
she  had  sent  for  to  make,  on  this  extraordinary  occasion, 
what  she  called  her  "part."  That  artist  having,  unad- 
visedly, dressed  her  hair  in  the  fashion,  he  was  com- 
pelled, after  she  had  looked  at  herself  in  the  glass,  to  do 
his  work  over  again,  and  conform  to  the  usual  style  of 
his  client,  which  consisted  chiefly  in  never  being  "done" 
at  all,  a  method  that  gave  her  head  a  general  air  of  what 
is  vulgarly  called  "  a  cross  cat." 

About  half-past  one  o'clock  la  Peyrade,  Thuillier, 
Colleville,  Madame  Thuillier,  and  Celeste  were  assem- 
bled in  the  salon.  Flavie  joined  them  soon  after,  fasten- 
ing her  bracelets  as  she  came  along  to  avoid  a  rebuff, 
and  having  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  she  was 
ready  before  Brigitte.  As  for  the  latter,  already  furious 
at  finding  herself  late,  she  had  another  cause  for  exasper- 
ation. The  event  of  the  day  seemed  to  require  a  corset, 
a  refinement  which  she  usually  discarded.  The  unfortu- 
nate maid,  whose  duty  it  was  to  lace  her  and  to  discover 
the  exact  point  to  which  she  was  willing  to  be  drawn  in, 
alone  knew  the  terrors  and  storms  of  a  corset  day. 

"I  'd  rather,"  said  the  girl,  "lace  the  obelisk  •,  I  know 
it  would  lend  itself  to  lacing  better  than  she  does;  and, 
anyhow,  it  could  n't  be  bad-tongued." 

While  the  party  in  the  salon  were  amusing  themselves, 
under  their  breaths,  at  the  flagrante  delicto  of  unpunc- 
tuality  in  which  Queen  Elizabeth  was  caught,  the  porter 
entered,  and  gave  to  Thuillier  a  sealed  package,  addressed 
to  "Monsieur  Thuillier,  director  of  the  'Echo  de  la 
Bievre.'     In  haste." 

Thuillier  opened  the  envelope,  and  found  within  a 
copy  of  a  ministerial  journal  which  had  hitherto  shown 
itself  discourteous  to  the  new  paper  by  refusing  the 
exchange  which  all  periodicals  usually  make  very  will- 
ingly with  one  another. 

Puzzled  by  the  fact  of  this  missive  being  sent  to  his 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  509 

own  house  and  not  to  the  office  of  the  "Echo,"  Thuillier 
hastily  opened  the  sheet,  and  read,  with  what  emotion 
the  reader  may  conceive,  the  following  article,  com- 
mended to  his  notice  by  a  circle  in  red  ink :  — 

"  An  obscure  organ  was  about  to  expire  in  its  native  shade 
when  an  ambitious  person  of  recent  date  bethought  himself  of 
galvanizing  it.  His  object  was  to  make  it  a  foothold  by  which 
to  climb  from  municipal  functions  to  the  coveted  position  of 
deputy.  Happily  this  object,  having  come  to  the  surface,  will 
end  in  failure.  Electors  will  certainly  not  be  inveigled  by  so 
wily  a  manner  of  advancing  self-interests  ;  and  when  the  proper 
time  arrives,  if  ridicule  has  not  already  done  justice  on  this 
absurd  candidacy,  we  shall  ourselves  prove  to  the  pretender  that 
to  aspire  to  the  distinguished  honor  of  representing  the  nation 
something  more  is  required  than  the  money  to  buy  a  paper  and 
pay  an  underling  to  put  into  good  French  the  horrible  diction  of 
his  articles  and  pamphlets.  We  confine  ourselves  to-day  to  this 
limited  notice,  but  our  readers  may  be  sure  that  we  shall  keep 
them  informed  about  this  electoral  comedy,  if  indeed  the  parties 
concerned  have  the  melancholy  courage  to  go  on  with  it." 

Thuillier  read  twice  over  this  sudden  declaration  of 
war,  which  was  far  from  leaving  him  calm  and  impas- 
sible; then,  taking  la  Peyrade  aside,  he  said  to  him:  — 

"Read  that;  it  is  serious." 

"Well?"  said  la  Peyrade,  after  reading  the  article. 

"Well?  how  well?  "  exclaimed  Thuillier. 

"I  mean,  what  do  you  find  so  serious  in  that?" 

"What  do  I  find  so  serious?"  repeated  Thuillier.  "I 
don't  think  anything  could  be  more  insulting  to  me." 

"You  can't  doubt,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "that  the  virtuous 
Cerizet  is  at  the  bottom  of  it;  he  has  thrown  this  fire- 
cracker between  your  legs  by  way  of  revenge." 

"Cerizet,  or  anybody  else  who  wrote  that  diatribe  is 
an  insolent  fellow,"  cried  Thuillier,  getting  angry,  "and 
the  matter  shall  not  rest  there." 

"For  my  part,"  said  la  Peyrade,   "I  advise  you  to 


510  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

make  no  reply.  You  are  not  named ;  though,  of  course, 
the  attack  is  aimed  at  you.  But  you  ought  to  let  our 
adversary  commit  himself  farther ;  when  the  right  moment 
comes,  we  '11  rap  him  over  the  knuckles." 

"No!  "  said  Thuillier,  "I  won't  stay  quiet  one  minute 
under  such  an  insult." 

"The,  devil!"  said  the  barrister;  "what  a  sensitive 
epidermis!  Do  reflect,  my  dear  fellow,  that  you  have 
made  yourself  a  candidate  and  a  journalist,  and  there- 
fore you  really  must  harden  yourself  better  than  that." 

"My  good  friend,  it  is  a  principle  of  mine  not  to  let 
anybody  step  on  my  toes.  Besides,  they  say  themselves 
they  are  going  on  with  this  thing.  Therefore,  it  is 
absolutely  necessary  to  cut  short  such  impertinence." 

"But  do  consider,"  said  la  Peyrade.  "Certainly  in 
journalism,  as  in  candidacy,  a  hot  temper  has  its  uses; 
a  man  makes  himself  respected,  and  stops  attacks  —  " 

"Just  so,"  said  Thuillier,  "principiis  obata."  Not  to- 
day, because  we  haven't  the  time,  but  to-morrow  I  shall 
carry  that  paper  into  court." 

"Into  court!  "  echoed  la  Peyrade ;  "you  surely  would  n't 
go  to  law  in  such  a  matter  as  this?  In  the  first  place, 
there  is  nothing  to  proceed  upon ;  you  are  not  named  nor 
the  paper  either,  and,  besides,  it  is  a  pitiable  business, 
going  to  law;  you'll  look  like  a  boy  who  has  been  fight- 
ing, and  got  the  worst  of  it,  and  runs  to  complain  to 
mamma.  Now  if  you  had  said  that  you  meant  to  make 
Fleury  intervene  in  the  matter,  I  could  understand  that 
—  though  the  affair  is  rather  personal  to  you,  and  it 
might  be  difficult  to  make  it  seem  —  " 

"^4A  gal "  said  Thuillier,  "do  you  suppose  I  am  going 
to  commit  myself  with  a  Cerizet  or  any  other  newspaper 
bully?  I  pique  myself,  my  dear  fellow,  on  possessing 
civic  courage,  which  does  not  give  in  to  prejudices,  and 
which,  instead  of  taking  justice  into  its  own  hands,  has 
recourse  to  the  means  of  defence  that  are  provided  by 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  511 

law.  Besides,  with  the  legal  authority  the  Court  of  Cas- 
sation now  has  over  duelling,  I  have  no  desire  to  put 
myself  in  the  way  of  being  expatriated,  or  spending  two 
or  three  years  in  prison."  *" 

"Well,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "we  '11  talk  it  over  later; 
here  's  your  sister,  and  she  would  think  everything  lost 
if  this  little  matter  reached  her  ears." 

When  Brigitte  appeared  Colleville  shouted  "Full!" 
and  proceeded  to  sing  the  chorus  of  "La  Parisienne." 

"Heavens!  Colleville,  how  vulgar  you  are!"  cried  the 
tardy  one,  hastening  to  cast  a  stone  in  the  other's  garden 
to  avoid  the  throwing  of  one  into  hers.  "Well,  are  you 
all  ready?"  she  added,  arranging  her  mantle  before  a 
mirror.  "What  o'clock  is  it?  it  won't  do  to  get  there 
before  the  time,  like  provincials." 

"Ten  minutes  to  two,"  said  Colleville;  "I  go  by  the 
Tuileries." 

"Well,  then  we  are  just  right,"  said  Brigitte;  "it 
will  take  about  that  time  to  get  to  the  rue  Caumartin. 
Josephine,"  she  cried,  going  to  the  door  of  the  salon, 
"we  '11  dine  at  six,  therefore  be  sure  you  put  the  turkey 
to  roast  at  the  right  time,  and  mind  you  don't  burn  it, 
as  you  did  the  other  day.  Bless  me!  who's  that?"  and 
with  a  hasty  motion  she  shut  the  door,  which  she  had 
been  holding  open.  "What  a  nuisance!  I  hope  Henri 
will  have  the  sense  to  tell  him  we  are  out." 

Not  at  all;  Henri  came  in  to  say  that  an  old  gentle- 
man, with  a  very  genteel  air,  had  asked  to  be  received 
on  urgent  business. 

"Why  did  n't  you  say  we  were  all  out?  " 

"That's  what  I  should  have  done  if  mademoiselle  had 
not  opened  the  door  of  the  salon  so  that  the  gentleman 
could  see  the  whole  family  assembled." 

"Oh,  yes!"  said  Brigitte,  "you  are  never  in  the 
wrong,  are  you  ?  " 

"What  am  I  to  say  to  him?  "  asked  the  man. 


512  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Say,"  replied  Thuillier,  "that  I  am  very  sorry  not  to 
be  able  to  receive  him,  but  I  am  expected  at  a  notary's 
office  about  a  marriage  contract;  but  that  if  he  could 
return  two  hours  hence  —  " 

"I  have  told  him  all  that,"  said  Henri,  "and  he 
answered  that  that  contract  was  precisely  what  he  had 
come  about,  and  that  his  business  concerned  you  more 
than  himself." 

"You  had  better  go  and  see  him,  Thuillier,  and  get 
rid  of  him  in  double-quick,"  said  Brigitte;  "that's 
shorter  than  talking  to  Henri,  who  is  always  an  orator." 

If  la  Peyrade  had  been  consulted  he  might  not  have 
joined  in  that  advice,  for  he  had  had  more  than  one 
specimen  of  the  spokes  some  occult  influence  was  putting 
into  the  wheels  of  his  marriage,  and  the  present  visit 
seemed  to  him  ominous. 

"Show  him  into  my  study,"  said  Thuillier,  following 
his  sister's  advice;  and,  opening  the  door  which  led 
from  the  salon  to  the  study,  he  went  to  receive  his 
importunate  visitor. 

Brigitte  immediately  applied  her  eye  to  the  keyhole. 

"Goodness!  "  she  exclaimed,  "there's  my  imbecile  of 
a  Thuillier  offering  him  a  chair!  and  away  in  the  corner, 
too,  where  I  can't  hear  a  word  they  say!  " 

La  Peyrade  was  walking  about  the  room  with  an 
inward  agitation  covered  by  an  appearance  of  great 
indifference.  He  even  went  up  to  the  three  women,  and 
made  a  few  lover-like  speeches  to  Celeste,  who  received 
them  with  a  smiling,  happy  air  in  keeping  with  the  role 
she  was  playing.  As  for  Colleville,  he  was  killing  the 
time  by  composing  an  anagram  on  the  six  words  of  le 
jniirnal  "fjfaiAo  de  la  Bievre"  for  which  he  had  found 
the  following  version,  little  reassuring  (as  far  as  it  went) 
for  the  prospects  of  that  newspaper:  0  d'lZcho,  jarnif 
.la  bevue  reell — but  as  the  final  e  was  lacking  to  com- 
plete the  last  word,  the  work  was  not  altogether  as  satis- 
factory as  it  should  have  been. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  513 

"He  'staking  snuff!  "  said  Brigitte,  her  eye  still  glued 
to  the  keyhole ;  "his  gold  snuff-box  beats  Minard's  — 
though,  perhaps,  it  is  only  silver-gilt,"  she  added,  reflec- 
tively. "He  's  doing  the  talking,  and  Thuillier  is  sitting 
there  listening  to  him  like  a  buzzard.  I  shall  go  in  and 
tell  them  they  can't  keep  ladies  waiting  that  way." 

But  just  as  she  put  her  hand  on  the  lock  she  heard 
Thuillier's  visitor  raise  his  voice,  and  that  made  her 
look  through  the  keyhole  again. 

"He  is  standing  up;  he's  going,"  she  said  with 
satisfaction. 

But  a  moment  later  she  saw  she  had  made  a  mistake; 
the  little  old  man  had  only  left  his  chair  to  walk  up  and 
down  the  room  and  continue  the  conversation  with  greater 
freedom. 

"My  gracious!  I  shall  certainly  go  in,"  she  said, 
"and  tell  Thuillier  we  are  going  without  him,  and  he 
can  follow  us." 

So  saying,  the  old  maid  gave  two  little  sharp  and  very 
imperious  raps  on  the  door,  after  which  she  resolutely 
entered  the  study. 

La  Peyrade,  goaded  by  anxiety,  had  the  bad  taste  to 
look  through  the  keyhole  himself  at  what  was  happening. 
Instantly  he  thought  he  recognized  the  small  old  man  he 
had  seen  under  the  name  of  "the  commander"  on  that 
memorable  morning  when  he  had  waited  for  Madame  de 
Godollo.  Then  he  saw  Thuillier  addressing  his  sister 
with  impatience  and  with  gestures  of  authority  altogether 
out  of  his  usual  habits  of  deference  and  submission. 

"It  seems,"  said  Brigitte,  re-entering  the  salon,  "that 
Thuillier  finds  some  great  interest  in  that  creature's  talk, 
for  he  ordered  me  bluntly  to  leave  them,  though  the  little 
old  fellow  did  say,  rather  civilly,  that  they  would  soon 
be  through.  But  Jerome  added:  'Mind,  you  are  to  wait 
for  me.'  Really,  since  he  has  taken  to  making  news- 
papers I  don't  know  him;  he  has  set  up  an  air  as  if  he 
were  leading  the  world  with  his  wand." 


514  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"I  am  very  much  afraid  he  is  being  entangled  by  some 
adventurer,"  said  la  Peyrade.  "I  am  pretty  sure  I  saw 
that  old  man  at  Madame  de  Godollo's  the  day  I  went 
to  warn  her  off  the  premises;  he  must  be  of  the  same 
stripe." 

"Why  did  n't  you  tell  me?"  cried  Brigitte.  "I'd  have 
asked  him  for  news  of  the  countess,  and  let  him  see  we 
knew  what  we  knew  of  his  Hungarian."  | 

Just  then  the  sound  of  moving  chairs  was  heard,  and 
Brigitte  darted  to  the  keyhole. 

"Yes,"  she  said,  "he  is  really  going,  and  Thuillier  is 
bowing  him  out  respectfully!  " 

As  Thuillier  did  not  immediately  return,  Colleville  had 
time  to  go  to  the  window  and  exclaim  at  seeing  the  little 
old  gentleman  driving  away  in  an  elegant  coupe,  of 
which  the  reader  has  already  heard. 

"The  deuce !  "  cried  Colleville;  "what  an  ornate  livery ! 
If  he  is  an  adventurer  he  is  a  number  one." 

At  last  Thuillier  re-entered  the  room,  his  face  full  of 
care,  his  manner  extremely  grave. 

"My  dear  la  Peyrade,"  he  said,  "you  did  not  tell  us 
that  another  proposal  of  marriage  had  been  seriously 
considered  by  you." 

"Yes,  I  did;  I  told  you  that  a  very  rich  heiress  had 
been  offered  to  me,  but  that  my  inclinations  were  here, 
and  that  I  had  not  given  any  encouragement  to  the  affair; 
consequently,  of  course,  there  was  no  3erious  engage- 
ment." 

"Well,  I  think  you  do  wrong  to  treat  that  proposal  so 
lightly." 

"What!  do  you  mean  to  say,  in  presence  of  these 
ladies,  that  you  blame  me  for  remaining  faithful,  to  my 
first  desires  and  our  old  engagement?  " 

"My  friend,  the  conversation  that  I  have  just  had  has 
been  a  most  instructive  one  to  me ;  and  when  you  know 
what  I  know,   with  other  details   personal  to  yourself, 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  515 

which  will  be  confided  to  you,  I  think  that  you  will  enter 
into  my  ideas.  One  thing  is  certain :  we  shall  not  go  to 
the  notary  to-day ;  and  as  for  you,  the  best  thing  that 
you  can  do  is  to  go,  without  delay,  to  Monsieur  du 
Portail." 

"That  name  again!  it  pursues  me  like  a  remorse," 
exclaimed  la  Peyrade. 

"Yes;  go  at  once;  he  is  awaiting  you.  It  is  an  indis- 
pensable preliminary  before  we  can  go  any  farther. 
When  you  have  seen  that  excellent  man  and  heard  what 
he  has  to  say  to  you  —  well,  then  if  you  persist  in  claiming 
Celeste's  hand,  we  might  perhaps  carry  out  our  plans. 
Until  then  we  shall  take  no  steps  in  the  matter." 

"But,  my  poor  Thuillier,"  said  Brigitte,  "you  have  let 
yourself  be  gammoned  by  a  rascal;  that  man  belongs  to 
the  Godollo  set." 

"Madame  de  Godollo,"  replied  Thuillier,  "is  not  at 
all  what  you  suppose  her  to  be,  and  the  best  thing  this 
house  can  do  is  never  to  say  one  word  about  her,  either 
good  or  evil.  As  for  la  Peyrade,  as  this  is  not  the  first 
time  he  has  been  requested  to  go  and  see  Monsieur  du 
Portail,  I  am  surprised  that  he  hesitates  to  do  so." 

"Ah  go,!"  said  Brigitte,  "that  little  old  man  has  com- 
pletely befooled  you." 

"I  tell  you  that  that  little  old  man  is  all  that  he  appears 
to  be.  He  wears  seven  crosses,  he  drives  in  a  splendid 
equipage,  and  he  has  told  me  things  that  have  over- 
whelmed me  with  astonishment." 

"Well,  perhaps  he's  a  fortune-teller  like  Madame 
Fontaine,  who  managed  once  upon  a  time  to  upset  me 
when  Madame  Minard  and  I,  just  to  amuse  ourselves, 
went  to  consult,  her." 

"Well,  if  he  is  not  a  sorcerer  he  certainly  has  a  very 
long  arm,"  said  Thuillier,  "and  I  think  a  man  would 
suffer  for  it  if  he  did  n't  respect  his  advice.  As  for  you, 
Brigitte,  he  saw  you  only  for  a  minute,  but  he  told  me 


516  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

your  whole  character;  he  said  you  were  a  masterful 
woman,  born  to  command." 

"The  fact  is,"  said  Brigitte,  licking  her  chops  at 
this  compliment,  like  a  cat  drinking  cream,  "he  has  a 
very  well-bred  air,  that  little  old  fellow.  You  take  my 
advice,  my  dear,"  she  said,  turning  to  la  Peyrade;  "if 
such  a  very  big-wig  as  that  wants  you  to  do  so,  go  and 
see  this  du  Portail,  whoever  he  is.  That,  it  seems  to 
me,  won't  bind  you  to  anything." 

"You  are  right,  Brigitte,"  said  Colleville;  "as  for  me, 
I  'd  follow  up  all  the  Portails,  or  Porters,  or  Portate  for 
the  matter  of  that,  if  they  asked  me  to." 

The  scene  was  beginning  to  resemble  that  in  the 
"Barber  of  Seville,"  where  everybody  tells  Basil  to  go 
to  bed,  for  he  certainly  has  a  fever.  La  Peyrade,  thus 
prodded,  picked  up  his  hat  in  some  ill-humor,  and  went 
where  his  destiny  called  him, —  quo  sua  fata  vocabant. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  517 


XV. 

AT   DU    PORTAIL'S. 

On  reaching  the  rue  Honore-Chevalier  la  Peyrade  felt 
a  doubt;  the  dilapidated  appearance  of  the  house  to 
which  he  was  summoned  made  him  think  he  had  mis- 
taken the  number.  It  seemed  to  him  that  a  person  of 
Monsieur  du  Portail's  evident  importance  could  not 
inhabit  such  a  place.  It  was  therefore  with  some  hesi- 
tation that  he  accosted  Sieur  Perrache,  the  porter.  But 
no  sooner  had  he  entered  the  antechamber  of  the  apart- 
ment pointed  out  to  him  than  the  excellent  deportment 
of  Bruneau,  the  old  valet,  and  the  extremely  comfortable 
appearance  of  the  furniture  and  other  appointments  made 
him  see  that  he  was  probably  in  the  right  place.  Intro- 
duced at  once,  as  soon  as  he  had  given  his  name,  into  the 
study  of  the  master  of  the  house,  his  surprise  was  great 
when  he  found  himself  in  presence  of  the  commander,  so 
called,  the  friend  of  Madame  de  Godollo,  and  the  little 
old  man  he  had  seen  half  an  hour  earlier  with  Thuillier. 

"At  last!"  said  du  Portail,  rising,  and  offering  la 
Peyrade  a  chair,  "at  last  we  meet,  my  refractory  friend; 
it  has  taken  a  good  deal  to  bring  you  here." 

"May  I  know,  monsieur,"  said  la  Peyrade,  haughtily, 
not  taking  the  chair  which  was  offered  to  him,  "what 
interest  you  have  in  meddling  with  my  affairs?  I  do 
not  know  you,  and  I  may  add  that  the  place  where  I 
once  saw  you  did  not  create  an  unconquerable  desire  in 
me  to  make  your  acquaintance." 

"Where  have  you  seen  me?  "  asked  du  Portail. 


518  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"In  the  apartment  of  a  strumpet  who  called  herself 
Madame  de  Godollo." 

"Where  monsieur,  consequently,  went  himself,"  said 
the  little  old  man,  "and  for  a  purpose  much  less  dis- 
interested than  mine." 

"I  have  not  come  here,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "to  bandy 
words  with  any  one.  I  have  the  right,  monsieur,  to  a  full 
explanation  as  to  the  meaning  of  your  proceedings 
towards  me.  I  therefore  request  you  not  to  delay  them 
by  a  facetiousness  to  which,  I  assure  you,  I  am  not  in 
the  humor  to  listen." 

"Then,  my  dear  fellow,"  said  du  Portail,  "sit  down, 
for  I  am  not  in  the  humor  to  twist  my  neck  by  talking 
up  at  you. " 

The  words  were  reasonable,  and  they  were  said  in  a 
tone  that  showed  the  old  gentleman  was  not  likely  to  be 
frightened  by  grand  airs.  La  Peyrade  therefore  deferred 
to  the  wishes  of  his  host,  but  he  took  care  to  do  so  with 
the  worst  grace  possible. 

"Monsieur  Cerizet,"  said  du  Portail,  "a  man  of  excel- 
lent standing  in  the  world,  and  who  has  the  honor  to  be 
one  of  your  friends  —  " 

"I  have  nothing  to  do  with  that  man  now,"  said  la 
Peyrade,  sharply,  understanding  the  malicious  meaning 
of  the  old  man's  speech. 

"Well,  the  time  has  been,"  said  du  Portail,  "when 
you  saw  him,  at  least,  occasionally:  for  instance,  when 
you  paid  for  his  dinner  at  the  Rocher  de  Cancale.  As 
I  was  saying,  I  charged  the  virtuous  Monsieur  Cerizet 
to  sound  you  as  to  a  marriage  — " 

"Which  I  refused,"  interrupted  la  Peyrade,  "and 
which  I  now  refuse  again,  more  vehemently  than  ever." 

"That's  the  question,"  said  the  old  man.  "I  think, 
on  the  contrary,  that  you  will  accept  it;  and  it  is  to  talk 
over  this  affair  with  you  that  I  have  so  long  desired  a 
meeting." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  519 

"But  this  crazy  girl  that  you  are  flinging  at  my  head," 
said  la  Peyrade,  "what  is  she  to  you?  She  can't  be 
your  daughter,  or  you  would  put  more  decency  into  your 
hunt  for  a  husband." 

"This  young  girl,"  replied  du  Portail,  "is  the  daughter 
of  one  of  my  friends  who  died  about  ten  years  ago;  at 
his  death  I  took  her  to  live  with  me,  and  have  given  her 
all  the  care  her  sad  condition  needed.  Her  fortune, 
which  I  have  greatly  increased,  added  to  my  own,  which 
I  intend  to  leave  to  her,  will  make  her  a  very  rich 
heiress.  I  know  that  you  are  no  enemy  to  handsome 
dots,  for  you  have  sought  them  in  various  places,  — 
Thuillier's  house,  for  instance,  or,  to  use  your  own  ex- 
pression, that  of  a  strumpet  whom  you  scarcely  knew. 
I  have  therefore  supposed  you  would  accept  at  my  hands 
a  very  rich  young  woman,  especially  as  her  infirmity  is 
declared  by  the  best  physicians  to  be  curable;  whereas 
you  can  never  cure  Monsieur  and  Mademoiselle  Thuillier, 
the  one  of  being  a  fool,  the  other  of  being  a  fury,  any 
more  than  you  could  cure  Madame  Komorn  of  being  a 
woman  of  very  medium  virtue  and  extremely  giddy." 

"It  may  suit  me,"  replied  la  Peyrade,  "to  marry  the 
daughter  of  a  fool  and  a  fury  if  I  choose  her,  or  I  might 
become  the  husband  of  a  clever  coquette,  if  passion  seized 
me,  but  the  Queen  of  Sheba  herself,  if  imposed  upon  me, 
neither  you,  monsieur,  nor  the  ablest  and  most  powerful 
man  living  could  force  me  to  accept." 

"Precisely;  therefore  it  is  to  your  own  good  sense 
and  intelligence  that  I  now  address  myself ;  but  we  have 
to  come  face  to  face  with  people  in  order  to  speak  to 
them,  you  know.  Now,  then,  let  us  look  into  your 
present  situation,  and  don't  get  angry  if,  like  a  surgeon 
who  wants  to  cure  his  patient,  I  lay  my  hand  mercilessly 
on  wounds  which  have  long  tormented  and  harassed  you. 
The  first  point  to  state  is  that  the  Celeste  Colleville  affair 
is  at  an  end  for  you." 


520  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

* 

"Why  so?"  demanded  la  Peyrade. 

"Because  I  have  just  seen  Tliuillier  and  terrified  him 
with  the  history  of  the  misfortunes  he  has  incurred,  and 
those  he  will  incur  if  he  persists  in  the  idea  of  giving 
you  his  goddaughter  in  marriage.  He  knows  now  that 
it  was  I  who  paralyzed  Madame  du  Bruel's  kind  offices 
in  the  matter  of  the  cross;  that  I  had  his  pamphlet 
seized;  that  I  sent  that  Hungarian  woman  into  his  house 
to  handle  you  all,  as  she  did ;  and  that  my  hand  is  opening 
fire  in  the  ministerial  journals,  which  will  only  increase 
from  bad  to  worse, —  not  to  speak  of  other  machina- 
tions which  will  be  directed  against  his  candidacy. 
Therefore  you  see,  my  good  friend,  that  not  only  you 
have  no  longer  the  credit  in  Thuillier's  eyes  of  being 
his  great  helper  to  that  election,  but  that  you  actually 
block  the  way  to  his  ambition.  That  is  enough  to  prove 
to  you  that  the  side  by  which  you  have  imposed  yourself 
on  that  family  —  who  have  never  sincerely  liked  or  desired 
you  —  is  now  completely  battered  down  and  dismantled." 

"But  to  have  done  all  that  which  you  claim  with  such 
pretension,  who  are  you?"  demanded  la  Peyrade. 

"I  shall  not  say  that  you  are  very  inquisitive,  for  I 
intend  to  answer  your  question  later;  but  for  the  present 
let  us" continue,  if  you  please,  the  autopsy  of  your  exist- 
ence, dead  to-day,  but  which  I  propose  to  resuscitate 
gloriously.  You  are  twenty-eight  years  old,  and  you 
have  begun  a  career  in  which  I  shall  not  allow  you  to 
make  another  step.  A  few  days  hence  the  Council  of 
the  order  of  barristers  will  assemble  and  will  censure, 
more  or  less  severely,  your  conduct  in  the  matter  of  the 
property  you  placed  with  such  candor  in  Thuillier's 
hands.  Do  not  deceive  yourself;  censure  from  that 
quarter  (and  I  mention  only  your  least  danger)  is  as  fatal 
to  a  barrister  as  being  actually  disbarred." 

"And  it  is  to  your  kind  offices,  no  doubt,"  said  la 
Pevrade,  "that  I  shall  owe  that  precious  result?" 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  521 

"Yes,  I  may  boast  of  it,"  replied  du  Portail,  "for,  in 
order  to  tow  you  into  port  it  has  been  necessary  to  strip 
you  of  your  rigging;  unless  that  were  done,  you  would 
always  have  tried  to  navigate  under  your  own  sails  the 
bourgeois  shoals  that  you  are  now  among." 

Seeing  that  he,  undoubtedly,  had  to  do  with  a  strong 
hand,  la  Peyrade  thought  best  to  modify  his  tone;  and 
so,  with  a  more  circumspect  air,  he  said :  — 

"You  will  allow  me,  monsieur,  to  reserve  my  acknowl- 
edgments until  I  receive  some  fuller  explanation."    ■ 

"Here  you  are,  then,"  continued  du  Portail,  "at  twenty- 
eight  years  of  age,  without  a  penny,  virtually  without  a 
profession;  with  antecedents  that  are  very  —  middling; 
with  associates  like  Monsieur  Dutocq  and  the  courageous 
Cerizet;  owing  to  Mademoiselle  Thuillier  ten  thousand 
francs,  which  your  good  conscience  is  pressing  you  to 
pay,  and  to  Madame  Lambert  twenty-five  thousand, 
which  you  are  no  doubt  extremely  desirous  to  return  to 
her;  and  finally,  this  marriage,  your  last  hope,  your 
sheet-anchor,  has  just  become  an  utter  impossibility. 
Between  ourselves,  if  I  have  something  reasonable  to 
propose  to  you,  do  you  pot  think  that  you  had  much 
better  place  yourself  at  my  disposal?" 

"I  have  time  enough  to  prove  that  your  opinion  is 
mistaken,"  returned  la  Pe}^rade;  "and  I  shall  not  form 
any  resolution  so  long  as  the  designs  you  choose  to  have 
upon  me  are  not  more  fully  explained." 

"You  were  spoken  to,  at  my  instigation,  about  a  mar- 
riage," resumed  du  Portail.  "This  marriage,  as  I  think,  is 
closely  connected  with  a  past  existence  from  which  a  cer- 
tain hereditary  or  family  duty  has  devolved  upon  you.  Do 
you  know  what  that  uncle  of  yours,  to  whom  you  applied  in 
1829,  was  doing  in  Paris?  In  your  family  he  was  thought 
to  be  a  millionnaire ;  and,  dying  suddenly,  you  remem- 
ber, before  you  got  to  him,  he  did  not  leave  enough  for  his 
burial;  a  pauper's  grave  was  all  that  remained  to  him." 


522  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"Did  you  know  him?  "  asked  la  Peyrade. 

"He  was  my  oldest  and  dearest  friend,"  replied  du 
Portail. 

"If  that  is  so,"  said  la  Peyrade,  hastily,  "a  sum 
of  two  thousand  francs,  which  I  received  on  my  arrival 
in  Paris  from  some  unknown'  source  —  " 

"Came  from  me,"  replied  du  Portail.  "Unfortunately, 
engaged  at  the  time  in  a  rush  of  important  affairs,  which 
you  shall  hear  of  later,  I  could  not  immediately  follow 
up  the  benevolent  interest  I  felt  in  you  for  your  uncle's 
sake;  this  explains  why  1  left  you  in  the  straw  of  a 
garret,  where  you  came,  like  a  medlar,  to  that  maturity 
of  ruin  which  brought  you  under  the  hand  of  a  Dutocq 
and  a  Cerizet." 

"I  am  none  the  less  grateful  to  you,  monsieur,"  said 
la  Peyrade;  "and  if  I  had  known  you  were  that  generous 
protector,  whom  I  was  never  able  to  discover,  I  should 
have  been  the  first  to  seek  occasion  to  meet  you  and  to 
thank  you." 

"A  truce  to  compliments,"  said  du  Portail ;  "and,  to 
come  at  once  to  the  serious  side  of  our  present  confer- 
ence, what  should  you  say  if  I  told  you  that  this  uncle, 
whose  protection  and  assistance  you  came  to  Paris  to 
obtain,  was  an  agent  of  that  occult  power  which  has 
always  been  the  theme  of  feeble  ridicule  and  the  object 
of  silly  prejudice?  " 

"I  do  not  seize  your  meaning,"  said  la  Peyrade,  with 
uneasy  curiosity;  "may  I  ask  you  to  be  more  precise?" 

"For  example,  I  will  suppose,"  continued  du  Portail, 
"that  your  uncle,  if  still  living,  were  to  say  to  you  to- 
day :  *  You  are  seeking  fortune  and  influence,  my  good 
nephew ;  you  want  to  rise  above  the  crowd  and  to  play 
your  part  in  all  the  great  events  of  your  time ;  you  want 
employment  for  a  keen,  active  mind,  full  of  resources, 
and  slightly  inclined  to  intrigue;  in  short,  you  long  to 
exert  in  some  upper  and  elegant  sphere  that  force  of  will 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  523 

and  subtlety  which  at  present  you  are  wasting  in  the 
silly  and  useless  manipulation  of  the  most  barren  and 
tough-skinned  animal  on  earth,  to  wit:  a  bourgeois. 
Well,  then,  lower  your  head,  my  fine  nephew;  enter  with 
me  through  the  little  door  which  I  will  open  to  you ;  it 
gives  admittance  to  a  great  house,  often  maligned,  but 
better  far  than  its  reputation.  That  threshold  once 
crossed,  you  can  rise  to  the  height  of  your  natural 
genius,  whatever  its  spark  may  be.  Statesmen,  kings 
even,  will  admit  you  to  their  most  secret  thoughts ;  you 
will  be  their  occult  collaborator,  and  none  of  the  joys 
which  money  and  the  highest  powers  can  bestow  upon  a 
man  will  be  lacking  to  you.' " 

"But,  monsieur,"  objected  la  Peyrade,  "without  ven- 
turing to  understand  you,  I  must  remark  that  my  uncle 
died  so  poor,  you  tell  me,  that  public  charity  buried 
him." 

"Your  uncle,"  replied  du  Portail,  "was  a  man  of  rare 
talent,  but  he  had  a  certain  weak  side  in  his  nature 
which  compromised  his  career.  He  was  eager  for  pleas- 
ure, a  spendthrift,  thoughtless  for  the  future;  he  wanted 
also  to  taste  those  joys  that  are  meant  for  the  common 
run  of  men,  but  which  for  great,  exceptional  vocations 
are  the  worst  of  snares  and  impediments:  I  mean  the 
joys  of  family.  He  had  a  daughter  whom  he  madly 
loved,  and  it  was  through  her  that  his  terrible  enemies 
opened  a  breach  in  his  life,  and  prepared  the  horrible 
catastrophe  that  ended  it." 

"Is  that  an  encouragement  to  enter  this  shady  path, 
where,  you  say,  he  might  have  asked  me  to  follow  him?" 

"But  if  I  myself,"  said  du  Portail,  "should  offer  to 
guide  you  in  it,  what  then  ?  " 

"You,  monsieur!  "  said  la  Peyrade,  in  stupefaction. 

"Yes,  I  —  I  who  was  your  uncle's  pupil  at  first,  and 
later  his  protector  and  providence;  I,  whose  influence 
the  last   half-century  has  daily   increased;    I,  who  am 


524  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

wealthy;  I,  to  whom  all  governments,  as  they  fall  one 
on  top  of  the  others  like  houses  of  cards,  come  to  ask  for 
safety  and  for  the  power  to  rebuild  their  future;  I,  who 
am  the  manager  of  a  great  theatre  of  puppets  (where  I 
have  Columbines  in  the  style  of  Madame  de  Godollo) ; 
I,  who  to-morrow,  if  it  were  necessary  to  the  success  of 
one  of  my  vaudevilles  or  one  of  my  dramas,  might  pre- 
sent myself  to  your  eyes  as  the  wearer  of  the  grand 
cordon  of  the  Legion  of  honor,  of  the  Order  of  the  Black 
Eagle,  or  that  of  the  Golden  Fleece.  Do  you  wish  to 
know  why  neither  you  nor  I  will  die  a  violent  death  like 
your  uncle,  and  also  why,  more  fortunate  than  contem- 
poraneous kings,  I  can  transmit  my  sceptre  to  the  suc- 
cessor whom  I  myself  may  choose?  Because,  like  you, 
my  young  friend,  in  spite  of  your  Southern  appearance, 
I  was  cold,  profoundly  calculating,  never  tempted  to  lose 
my  time  on  trifles  at  the  outskirts ;  because  heat,  when 
I  was  led  by  force  of  circumstances  to  employ  it,  never 
went  below  the  surface.^  It  is  more  than  probable  that 
you  have  heard  of  me ;  well,  for  you  I  will  open  a  win- 
dow in  my  cloud ;  look  at  me,  observe  me  well ;  have  I 
a  cloven  hoof,  or  a  tail  at  the  end  of  my  spine  ?  On  the 
contrary,  am  I  not  a  model  of  the  most  inoffensive  of 
householders  in  the  Saint-Sulpice  quarter?  In  that 
quarter,  where  I  have  enjoyed,  I  may  say  it,  universal 
esteem  for  the  last  twenty-five  years,  I  am  called  du 
Portail ;  but  to  you,  if  you  will  allow  me,  I  shall  now 
name  myself  Corentin." 

"Corentin!"  cried  la  Peyrade,  with  terrified  astonish- 
ment. 

"Yes,  monsieur;  and  you  see  that  in  telling  you  that 
secret  I  lay  my  hand  upon  you,  and  enlist  you.  Coren- 
tin! 'the  greatest  man  of  the  police  in  modern  times/ 
as  the  author  of  an  article  in  the  ?  Biographies  of  Living 
Men '  has  said  of  me  —  as  to  whom  I  ought  in  justice  to 
remark  that  he  does  n't  know  a  thing  about  my  life. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  525 

"Monsieur,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "I  can  assure  you  that 
I  shall  keep  that  secret;  but  the  place  which  you  offer  me 
near  you  —  in  your  employ  —  " 

"That  frightens  you,  or,  at  least,  it  makes  you  uneasy," 
said  Corentin,  quickly.  Before  you  have  even  considered 
the  thing  the  word  scares  you,  does  it?  The  police! 
police!  you  are  afraid  to  encounter  the  terrible  prejudice 
that  brands  it  on  the  brow." 

"Certainly,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "it  is  a  necessary  insti- 
tution ;  but  I  do  not  think  that  it  is  always  calumniated. 
If  the  business  of  those  who  manage  it  is  honorable  why 
do  they  conceal  themselves  so  carefully  ?  " 

"Because  all  that  threatens  society,  which  it  is  the 
mission  of  the  police  to  repress,"  replied  Corentin,  "is 
plotted  and  prepared  in  hiding.  Do  thieves  and  con- 
spirators put  upon  their  hats,  '  I  am  Guillot,  the  shepherd 
of  this  flock'  ?  And  when  we  are  after  them  must  we 
ring  a  bell  to  let  them  know  we  are  coming?" 

"Monsieur,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "when  a  sentiment  is 
universal  it  ceases  to  be  a  prejudice,  it  becomes  an 
opinion;  and  this  opinion  ought  to  be  a  law  to  every  man 
who  desires  to  keep  his  own  esteem  and  that  of  others." 

"And  when  you  robbed  that  notary  to  enrich  the 
Thuilliers  for  your  own  advantage,"  said  Corentin,  "did 
you  keep  your  own  esteem  and  that  of  the  Council  of 
barristers?  And  who  knows,  monsieur,  if  in  your  life 
there  are  not  still  blacker  actions  than  that?  I  am  a 
more  honorable  man  ttian  you,  because,  outside  of  my 
functions,  I  have  not  one  doubtful  act  upon  my  con- 
science; and  when  the  opportunity  for  good  has  been  pre- 
sented to  me  I  have  done  it  —  always  and  everywhere. 
Do  you  think  that  the  guardianship  of  that  poor  insane 
girl  in  my  home  has  been  all  roses?  But  she  was  the 
daughter  of  my  old  friend,  your  uncle,  and  when,  feeling 
the  years  creep  on  me,  I  propose  to  you,  between  sacks 
of  money,  to  fit  yourself  to  take  my  place  —  " 


526  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"What!"  cried  la  Peyrade,  "is  that  girl  my  uncle's 
daughter?" 

"Yes;  the  girl  I  wish  you  to  marry  is  the  daughter  of 
your  uncle  Peyrade,  —  for  he  democratized  his  name,  — 
or,  if  you  like  it  better,  she  was  the  daughter  of  Pere 
Canquoelle,  a  name  he  took  from  the  little  estate  on  which 
your  father  lived  and  starved  with  eleven  children.  You 
see,  in  spite  of  the  secrecy  your  uncle  always  kept  about 
his  family,  that  I  know  all  about  it.  Do  you  suppose 
that  before  selecting  you  as  your  cousin's  husband  I 
had  not  obtained  every  possible  information  about  you? 
And  what  I  have  learned  need  not  make  you  quite  so 
supercilious  to  the  police.  Besides,  as  the  vulgar  say- 
ing is,  the  best  of  your  nose  is  made  of  it.  Your 
uncle  belonged  to  the  police,  and,  thanks  to  that,  he 
became  the  confidant,  I  might  almost  say  the  friend,  of 
Louis  XVIII.,  who  took  the  greatest  pleasure  in  his 
companionship.  And  you,  by  nature  and  by  mind,  also 
by  the  foolish  position  into  which  you  have  got  yourself, 
in  short,  by  your  whole  being,  have  gravitated  steadily 
to  the  conclusion  I  propose  to  you,  namely,  that  of 
succeeding  me,  —  of  succeeding  Corentin.  That  is  the 
question  between  us,  monsieur.  Do  you  really  believe 
now  that  I  have  not  a  grasp  or  a  seizin,  as  you  call  it, 
upon  you,  and  that  you  can  manage  to  escape  me  for  any 
foolish  considerations  of  bourgeois  vanity?  " 

La  Peyrade  could  not  have  been  at  heart  so  violently 
opposed  to  this  proposal  as  he  seemed,  for  the  vigorous 
language  of  the  great  master  of  the  police  and  the 
species  of  appropriation  which  he  made  of  his  person 
brought  a  smile  to  the  young  man's  lips. 

Corentin  had  risen,  and  was  walking  up  and  down  the 
room,  speaking,  apparently,  to  himself. 

"The  police!  "  he  cried;  "one  may  say  of  it,  as  Basile 
said  of  calumny  to  Bartholo,  '  The  police,  monsieur! 
you  don't  know  what  you  despise !  '     And,  after  all," 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  527 

he  continued,  after  a  pause,  "who  are  they  who  despise 
it?  Imbeciles,  who  don't  know  any  better  than  to  insult 
their  protectors.  Suppress  the  police,  and  you  destroy 
civilization.  Do  the  police  ask  for  the  respect  of  such 
people?  No,  they  want  to  inspire  them  with  one  sen- 
timent only :  fear,  that  great  lever  with  which  to  govern 
mankind,  —  an  impure  race  whose  odious  instincts  God, 
hell,  the  executioner,  and  the  gendarmes  can  scarcely 
restrain!  " 

Stopping  short  before  la  Peyrade,  and  looking  at  him 
with  a  disdainful  smile,  he  continued :  — 

"  So  you  are  one  of  those  ninnies  who  see  in  the  police 
nothing  more  than  a  horde  of  spies  and  informers? 
Have  you  never  suspected  the  statesmen,  the  diplomats, 
the  Richelieus  it  produces?  Mercury,  monsieur,  — 
Mercury,  the  cleverest  of  the  gods  of  paganism,  —  what 
was  he  but  the  police  incarnate?  It  is  true  that  he  was 
also  the  god  of  thieves.  We  are  better  than  he,  for  we 
don't  allow  that  junction  of  forces." 

"And  yet,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "Vautrin,  or,  I  should 
say,  Jacques  Collin,  the  famous  chief  of,  the  detective 
police  —  " 

"Yes,  yes!  but  that's  in  the  lower  ranks,"  replied 
Corentin,  resuming  his  walk;  "there  's  always  a  muddy 
place  somewhere.  Still,  don't  be  mistaken  even  in  that. 
Vautrin  is  a  man  of  genius,  but  his  passions,  like  those 
of  your  uncle,  dragged  him  down.  But  go  up  higher 
(for  there  lies  the  whole  question,  namely,  the  rung  of 
the  ladder  on  which  a  man  has  wits  enough  to  perch). 
Take  the  prefect,  for  instance,  that  honored  minister, 
flattered  and  respected,  is  he  a  spy?  Well,  I,  monsieur, 
am  the  prefect  .of  the  secret  police  of  diplomacy  —  of  the 
highest  statesmanship.  And  you  hesitate  to  mount  that 
throne! — to  seem  small  and  do  great  things;  to  live  in 
a  cave  comfortably  arranged  like  this,  and  command  the 
light;  to  have  at  your  orders  an  invisible  army,  always 


528  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie, 

ready,  always  devoted,  always  submissive;  to  know  the 
other  side  of  everything;  to  be  duped  by  no  intrigue 
because  you  hold  the  threads  of  all  within  your  fingers; 
to  see  through  all  partitions;  to  penetrate  all  secrets, 
search  all  hearts,  all  consciences,  —  these  are  the  things 
you  fear!  And  yet  you  were  not  afraid  to  go  and  wallow 
in  a  Thuillier  bog;  you,  a  thoroughbred,  allowed  your- 
self to  be  harnessed  to  a  hackney-coach,  to  the  ignoble 
business  of  electing  that  parvenu  bourgeois." 

"A  man  does  what  he  can,"  said  la  Peyrade. 

"Here's  a  very  remarkable  thing,"  pursued  Corentin, 
replying  to  his  own  thought;  "the  French  language, 
more  just  than  public  opinion,  has  given  us  our  right 
place,  for  it  has  made  the  word  police  the  synonym  of 
civilization  and  the  antipodes  of  savage  life,  when  it 
said  and  wrote:  V ' Etat  police,  from  the  Greek  words 
state  and  city.  So,  I  can  assure  you,  we  care  little  for 
the  prejudice  that  tries  to  brand  us;  none  know  men  as 
we  do ;  and  to  know  them  brings  contempt  for  their  con- 
tempt as  well  as  for  their  esteem." 

"There  is  certainly  much  truth  in  what  you  say  with 
such  warmth,"  said  la  Peyrade,  finally. 

"Much  truth!  "  exclaimed  Corentin,  going  back  to  his 
chair,  "say,  rather,  that  it  is  all  true,  and  nothing  but 
the  truth;  yet  it  is  not  the  whole  truth.  But  enough 
for  to-day,  monsieur.  To  succeed  me  in  my  functions, 
and  to  marry  your  cousin  with  a  dot  that  will  not  be  less 
than  five  hundred  thousand  francs,  that  is  my  offer.  I 
do  not  ask  you  for  an  answer  now.  I  should  have  no 
confidence  in  a  determination  not  seriously  reflected 
upon.  To-morrow,  I  shall  be  at  home  all  the  morning. 
I  trust  that  my  conviction  may  then  have  formed 
yours." 

Dismissing  his  visitor  with  a  curt  little  bow,  he 
added:  "I  do  not  bid  you  adieu,  but  au  revoir,  Mon- 
sieur de  la  Peyrade." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  529 

Whereupon  Corentin  went  to  a  side-table,  where  he 
found  all  that  he  needed  to  prepare  a  glass  of  eau  sucree, 
which  he  had  certainly  earned,  and,  without  looking  at 
la  Peyrade,  who  left  the  room  rather  stunned,  he  seemed 
to  have  no  other  interest  on  his  mind  than  that  prosaic 
preparation. 

Was  it,  indeed,  necessary  that  the  morning  after  this 
meeting  with  Corentin  a  visit  from  Madame  Lambert, 
now  become  an  exacting  and  importunate  creditor,  should 
come  to  bear  its  weight  on  la  Peyrade's  determination? 
As  the  great  chief  had  pointed  out  to  him  the  night 
before,  was  there  not  in  his  nature,  in  his  mind,  in  his 
aspirations,  in  the  mistakes  and  imprudences  of  his  past 
life,  a  sort  of  irresistible  incline  which  drew  him  down 
toward  the  strange  solution  of  existence  thus  suddenly 
offered  to  him? 

Fatality,  if  we  may  so  call  it,  was  lavish  of  the  induce- 
ments to  which  he  was  destined  to  succumb.  This  day 
was  the  31st  of  October;  the  vacation  of  the  Palais  was 
just  over.  The  2d  of  November  was  the  day  on  which 
the  courts  reopened,  and  as  Madame  Lambert  left  his 
room  he  received  a  summons  to  appear  on  that  day 
before  the  Council  of  his  order. 

To  Madame  Lambert,  who  pressed  him  sharply  to 
repay  her,  under  pretence  that  she  was  about  to  leave 
Monsieur  Picot  and  return  to  her  native  place,  he 
replied:  "Come  here  the  day  after  to-morrow,  at  the 
same  hour,  and  your  money  will  be  ready  for  you." 

To  the  summons  to  give  account  of  his  actions  to  his 
peers  he  replied  that  he  did  not  recognize  the  right  of 
the  Council  to  question  him  on  the  facts  of  his  private 
life.  That  was  an  answer  of  one  sort,  certainly.  Inev- 
itably it  would  result  in  his  being  stricken  from  the  roll 
of  the  barristers  of  the  Royal  courts;  but,  at  least,  it 
had  an  air  of  dignity  and  protestation  which  saved,  in 
a  measure,  his  self-love. 

34 


530  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

Finally,  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Thuillier,  in  which  he 
said  that  his  visit  to  du  Portail  had  resulted  in  his  being 
obliged  to  accept  another  marriage.  He  therefore  re- 
turned to  Thuillier  his  promise,  and  took  back  his  own. 
All  this  was  curtly  said,  without  the  slightest  expression 
of  regret  for  the  marriage  he  renounced.  In  a  postscript 
he  added:  "We  shall  be  obliged  to  discuss  my  position 
on  the  newspaper,"  —  indicating  that  it  might  enter  into 
his  plans  not  to  retain  it. 

He  was  careful  to  make  a  copy  of  tin's  letter,  and  an 
hour  later,  when,  in  Corentin's  study,  he  was  questioned 
as  to  the  result  of  his  nightf  s  reflections,  he  gave  that 
great  general,  for  all  answer,  the  matrimonial  resigna- 
tion he  had  just  despatched. 

"That  will  do,"  said  Corentin.  "But  as  for  your 
position  on  the  newspaper,  you  may  perhaps  have  to 
keep  it  for  a  time.  The  candidacy  of  that  fool  inter- 
feres with  the  plans  of  the  government,  and  w^e  must 
manage  in  some  way  to  trip  up  the  heels  of  the  munici- 
pal councillor.  Iu  your  position  as  editor-in-chief  you 
may  find  a  chance  to  do  it,  and  I  think  your  conscience 
won't  kick  at  the  mission." 

"No,  indeed!"  said  la  Peyrade,  "the  thought  of  the 
humiliations  to  which  I  have  been  so  long  subjected  will 
make  it  a  precious  joy  to  lash  that  bourgeois  brood." 

"Take  care!"  said  Corentin;  "you  are  young,  and 
you  must  watch  against  those  revengeful  emotions.  In 
our  austere  profession  we  love  nothing  and  we  hate 
nothing.  Men  are  to  us  mere  pawns  of  wood  or  ivory, 
according  to  their  quality  —  with  which  we  play  our 
game.  We  are  like  the  blade  that  cuts  what  is  given  it 
to  cut,  but,  careful  only  to  be  delicately  sharpened, 
wishes  neither  harm  nor  good  to  any  one.  Now  let  us 
speak  of  your  cousin,  to  whom,  I  suppose,  you  have  some 
curiosity  to  be  presented." 

La  Peyrade  was  not  obliged  to  pretend  to  eagerness, 
that  which  he  felt  was  srenuine. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  531 

"Lydie  de  la  Peyrade,"  said  Corentin,  "is  nearly 
thirty,  but  her  innocence,  joined  to  a  gentle  form  of 
insanity,  has  kept  her  apart  from  all  those  passions, 
ideas,  and  impressions  which  use  up  life,  and  has,  if  I 
may  say  so,  embalmed  her  in  a  sort  of  eternal  youth. 
You  would  not  think  her  more  than  twenty.  She  is  fair 
and  slender;  her  face,  which  is  very  delicate,  is  especially 
remarkable  for  an  expression  of  angelic  sweetness. 
Deprived  of  her  full  reason  by  a  terrible  catastrophe, 
her  monomania  has  something  touching  about  it.  She 
always  carries  in  her  arms  or  keeps  beside  her  a  bundle 
of  linen  which  she  nurses  and  cares  for  as  though  it  were 
a  sick  child ;  and,  excepting  Bruneau  and  myself,  whom 
she  recognizes,  she  thinks  all  other  men  are  .doctors, 
whom  she  consults  about  the  child,  and  to  whom  she 
listens  as  oracles.  A  crisis  which  lately  happened  in 
her  malady  has  convinced  Horac&Bianchon,  that  prince 
of  science,  that  if  the  reality  could  be  substituted  for 
this  long  delusion  of  motherhood,  her  reason  would  assert 
itself.  It  is  surely  a  worthy  task  to  bring  back  light  to 
a  soul  in  which  it  is  scarcely  veiled;  and  the  existing 
bond  of  relationship  has  seemed  to  me  to  point  you  out 
as  specially  designated  to  effect  this  cure,  tire  success  of 
which  Bianchon  and  two  other  eminent  doctors  who  have 
consulted  with  him  declare  to  be  beyond  a  doubt.  Now, 
I  will  take  you  to  Lydie's  presence;  remember  to  play 
the  part  of  doctor;  for  the  only  thing  that  makes  her 
lose  her  customary  serenity  is  not  to  enter  into  her  notion 
of  medical  consultation." 

After  crossing  several  rooms  Corentin  was  on  the  point 
of  taking  la  Peyrade  into  that  usually  occupied  by  Lydie 
when  employed  in  cradling  or  dandling  her  imaginary 
child,  when  suddenly  they  were  stopped  by  the  sound  of 
two  or  three  chords  struck  by  the  hand  of  a  master  on  a 
piano  of  the  finest  sonority. 

"What  is  that?  "  asked  la  Peyrade. 


532  The  Leaser  Bourgeoisie. 

"That  is  Lydie,"  replied  Corentin,  with  what  might 
be  called  an  expression  of  paternal  pride;  "she  is  an 
admirable  musician,  and  though  she  no  longer  writes 
down,  as  in  the  days  when  her  mind  was  clear,  her 
delightful  melodies,  she  often  improvises  them  in  a  way 
that  moves  me  to  the  soul  —  the  soul  of  Corentin !  "  added 
the  old  man,  smiling.  "Is  not  that  the  finest  praise  I  can 
bestow  upon  her?  But  suppose  we  sit  down  here  and 
listen  to  her.  If  we  go  in,  the  concert  will  cease  and  the 
medical  consultation  begin," 

La  Peyrade  was  amazed  as  he  listened  to  an  improvi- 
sation in  which  the  rare  union  of  inspiration  and  science 
opened  to  his  impressionable  nature  a  source  of  emotions 
as  deep  as  they  were  unexpected.  Corentin  watched  the 
surprise  which  from  moment  to  moment  the  Provencal 
expressed  by  admiring  exclamations. 

"Hein!  how  she  plays!"  said  the  old  man.  "Liszt 
himself  hasn't  a  firmer  touch." 

To  a  very  quick  scherzo  the  performer  now  added  the 
first  notes  of  an  adagio. 

"She  is  going  to  sing,"  said  Corentin,  recognizing  the 
air. 

"Does  she  sing  too?"  asked  la  Peyrade. 

"Like  Pasta,  like  Malibran;  but  hush,  listen  to  her!  " 

After  a  few  opening  bars  in  arpeggio  a  vibrant  voice 
resounded,  the  tones  of  which  appeared  to  stir  the 
Provengal  to  the  depths  of  his  being. 

"How  the  music  moves  you!"  said  Corentin;  "you 
were  undoubtedly  made  for  each  other." 

"My  God!  the  same  air!  the  same  voice!  " 

"Have  you  already  met  Lydie  somewhere?"  asked  the 
great  master  of  the  police. 

"I  don't  know  —I  think  not,"  answered  la  Peyrade,  in 
a  stammering  voice;  "in  any  case,  it  was  long  ago  — 
But  that  air  —  that  voice  —  I  think  —  " 

"Let  us  go  in,"  said  Corentin. 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  533 

Opening  the  door  abruptly,  he  entered,  pulling  the 
young  man  after  him. 

Sitting  with  her  back  to  the  door,  and  prevented  by 
the  sound  of  the  piano  from  hearing  what  happened 
behind  her,  Lydie  did  not  notice  their  entrance. 

"Now  have  you  any  remembrance  of  her?"  said 
Corentin. 

La  Peyrade  advanced  a  step,  and  no  sooner  had  he 
caught  a  glimpse  of  the  girl's  profile  than  he  threw  up 
his  hands  above  his  head,  striking  them  together. 

"It  is  she!  "  he  cried. 

Hearing  his  cry,  Lydie  turned  round,  and  fixing  her 
attention  on  Corentin,  she  said:  — 

"How  naughty  and  troublesome  you  are  to  come  and 
disturb  me;  you  know  very  well  I  don't  like  to  be  listened 
to.  Ah !  but  —  "  she  added,  catching  sight  of  la  Peyrade's 
black  coat,  "you  have  brought  the  doctor;  that  is  very 
kind  of  you;  I  was  just  going  to  ask  you  to  send  for 
him.  The  baby  has  done  nothing  but  cry  since  morn- 
ing ;  I  was  singing  to  put  her  to  sleep,  but  nothing  can 
do  that." 

And  she  ran  to  fetch  what  she  called  her  child  from  a 
corner  of  the  room,  where  with  two  chairs  laid  on  their 
backs  and  the  cushions  of  the  sofa,  she  had  constructed 
a  sort  of  cradle. 

As  she  went  towards  la  Peyrade,  carrying  her  precious 
bundle  with  one  hand,  with  the  other  she  was  arranging 
the  imaginary  cap  of  her  "little  darling,"  having  no 
eyes  except  for  the  sad  creation  of  her  disordered  brain. 
Step  by  step,  as  she  advanced,  la  Peyrade,  pale,  trem- 
bling, and  with  staring  eyes,  retreated  backwards,  until 
he  struck  against  a  seat,  into  which,  losing  his  equilib- 
rium, he  fell. 

A  man  of  Corentin's  power  and  experience,  and  who, 
moreover,  knew  to  its  slightest  detail  the  horrible  drama 
in  which   Lydie   had  lost   her  reason,  had  already,   of 


534  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

course,  taken  in  the  situation,  but  it  suited  his  purpose 
and  his  ideas  to  allow  the  clear  light  of  evidence  to 
pierce  this  darkness. 

"Look,  doctor,"  said  Lydie,  unfastening  the  bundle, 
and  putting  the  pins  in  her  mouth  as  she  did  so,  "don't 
you  see  that  she  is  growing  thinner  every  day?  " 

La  Peyrade  could  not  answer;  he  kept  his  handkerchief 
over  his  face,  and  his  breath  came  so  fast  from  his  chest 
that  he  was  totally  unable  to  utter  a  word. 

Then,  with  one  of  those  gestures  of  feverish  impa- 
tience, to  which  her  mental  state  predisposed  her,  she 
exclaimed,  hastily:  — 

"But  look  at  her,  doctor,  look!"  taking  his  arm  vio- 
lently and  forcing  him  to  show  his  features.  "My  God!  " 
she  cried,  when  she  had  looked  him  in  the  face. 

Letting  fall  the  linen  bundle  in  her  arms,  she  threw 
herself  hastily  backward,  and  her  eyes  grew  haggard. 
Passing  her  white  hands  rapidly  over  her  forehead  and 
through  her  hair,  tossing  it  into  disorder,  she  seemed 
to  be  making  an  effort  to  obtain  from  her  memory  some 
dormant  recollection.  Then,  like  a  frightened  mare, 
which  comes  to  smell  an  object  that  has  given  it  a 
momentary  terror,  she  approached  la  Peyrade  slowly, 
stooping  to  look  into  his  face,  which  he  kept  lowered, 
while,  in  the  midst  of  a  silence  inexpressible,  she  ex- 
amined him  steadily  for  several  seconds.  Suddenly  a 
terrible  cry  escaped  her  breast;  she  ran  for  refuge  into 
the  arms  of  Corentin,  and  pressing  herself  against  him 
with  all  her  force,  she  exclaimed :  — 

"Save  me!  save  me!  It  is  he!  the  wretch!  It  is  he  who 
did  it !  " 

And,  with  her  finger  pointed  at  la  Peyrade,  she  seemed 
to  nail  the  miserable  object  of  her  terror  to  his  place. 

After  this  explosion,  she  muttered  a  few  disconnected 
words,  and  her  eyes  closed;  Corentin  felt  the  relaxing 
of  all  the  muscles  by  which  she  had  held  him  as  in  a 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  535 

vice  the  moment  before,  and  he  took  her  in  his  arms  and 
laid  her  on  the  sofa,  insensible. 

"Do  not  stay  here,  monsieur,"  said  Corentin.  "Go 
into  my  study;  I  will  come  to  you  presently." 

A  few  minutes  later,  after  giving  Lydie  into  the  care 
of  Katte  and  Bruneau,  and  despatching  Perrache  for 
Docteur  Bianchon,  Corentin  rejoined  la  Peyrade. 

"You  see  now,  monsieur,"  he  said  with  solemnity, 
"that  in  pursuing  with  a  sort  of  passion  the  idea  of  this 
marriage,  I  was  following,  in  a  sense,  the  ways  of  God." 

"Monsieur,"  said  la  Peyrade,  with  compunction,  "I 
will  confess  to  you —  " 

"Useless,"  said  Corentin;  "you  can  tell  me  nothing 
that  I  do  not  know;  I,  on  the  contrary,  have  much  to  tell 
you.  Old  Peyrade,  your  uncle,  in  the  hope  of  earning 
a  pot  for  this  daughter  whom  he  idolized,  entered  into  a 
dangerous  private  enterprise,  the  nature  of  which  I  need 
not  explain.  In  it  he  made  enemies;  enemies  who 
stopped  at  nothing,  —  murder,  poison,  rape.  To  par- 
alyze your  uncle's  action  b}^  attacking  him  in  his  dearest 
spot,  Lydie  was,  not  abducted,  but  enticed  from  her  home 
and  taken  to  a  house  apparently  respectable,  where  for 
ten  days  she  was  kept  concealed.  She  was  not  much 
alarmed  by  this  detention,  being  told  that  it  was  done  at 
her  father's  wish,  and  she  spent  her  time  with  her  music 
—  you  remember,  monsieur,  how  she  sang  ?  " 

"Oh!"  exclaimed  la  Peyrade,  covering  his  face  with 
his  hands. 

"I  told  you  yesterday  that  you  might  perhaps  have 
more  upon  your  conscience  than  the  Thuillier  house.  But 
you  were  young ;  you  had  just  come  from  your  province, 
with  that  brutality,  that  frenzy  of  Southern  blood  in  your 
veins  which  flings  itself  upon  such  an  occasion.  Besides, 
your  relationship  became  known  to  those  who  were  pre- 
paring the  ruin  of  this  new  Clarissa  Harlowe,  and  I  am 
willing  to  believe  that  an  abler  and  better  man  than  you 


536  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

might  not  have  escaped  the  entanglement  into  which  you 
fell.  Happily,  Providence  has  granted  that  there"  is 
nothing  absolutely  irreparable  in  this  horrible  history. 
The  same  poison,  according  to  the  use  that  is  made  of  it, 
may  give  either  death  or  health." 

"But,  monsieur,"  said  la  Peyrade,  "shall  I  not  always 
be  to  her  an  object  of  horror?  " 

u  The  doctor,  monsieur,"  said  Katte,  opening  the  door. 

"How  is  Mademoiselle  Lydie?"  asked  la  Peyrade, 
eagerly. 

"  Very  calm,"  replied  Katte.  "Just  now,  when  we  put 
her  to  bed,  —  though  she  did  not  want  to  go,  saying,  she 
felt  well,  —  I  took  her  the  bundle  of  linen,  but  she  told 
me  to  take  it  away,  and  asked  what  I  meant  her  to  do 
with  it." 

"You  see,"  said  Corentin,  grasping  the  Provencal's 
hand,  "  you  are  the  lance  of  Achilles." 

And  he  left  the  room  with  Katte  to  receive  Docteur 
Bianchon. 

Left  alone,  Theodose  was  a  prey  to  thoughts  which 
may  perhaps  be  imagined.  After  a  while  the  door 
opened,  and  Bruneau,  the  old  valet,  ushered  in  Cerizet. 
Seeing  la  Peyrade,  the  latter  exclaimed:  — 

"Ha!  ha!  I  knew  it!  I  knew  you  would  end  by 
seeing  du  Portail.  And  the  marriage,  —  how  does  that 
come  on  ?  " 

"  What  are  you  doing  here?  "  asked  la  Peyrade. 

"Something  that  concerns  you;  or  rather,  something 
that  we  must  do  together.  Du  Portail,  who  is  too  busy 
to  attend  to  business  just  now,  has  sent  me  in  here  to 
see  you,  and  consult  as  to  the  best  means  of  putting  a 
spoke  in  Thuillier's  election;  it  seems  that  the  govern- 
ment is  determined  to  prevent  his  winning  it.  Have  you 
any  ideas  about  it?  " 

"No,"  replied  la  Peyrade;  "and  I  don't  feel  in  the 
mood  just  now  to  be  imaginative." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  537 

"Well,  here's  the  situation,"  said  Cerizet.  "  The 
government  has  another  candidate,  which  it  does  n't  yet 
produce,  because  the  ministerial  negotiations  with  him 
have  been  rather  difficult.  During  this  time  Thuillier's 
chances  have  been  making  headway.  Minard,  on  whom 
they  counted  to  create  a  diversion,  sits,  the  stupid  fool, 
in  his  corner;  the  seizure  of  that  pamphlet  has  given 
your  blockhead  of  a  protege  a  certain  perfume  of  popu- 
larity. In  short,  the  ministry  are  afraid  he  '11  be  elected, 
and  nothing  could  be  more  disagreeable  to  them.  Pom- 
pous imbeciles,  like  Thuillier,  are  horribly  embarrassing 
in  the  Opposition;  they  are  pitchers  without  handles; 
you  can't  take  hold  of  them  anywhere." 

"Monsieur  Cerizet,"  said  la  Peyrade,  beginning  to 
assume  a  protecting  tone,  and  wishing  to  discover  his 
late  associate's  place  in  Corentin's  confidence,  "  }'ou 
seem  to  know  a  good  deal  about  the  secret  intentions  of 
the  government;  have  you  found  your  way  to  a  certain 
desk  in  the  rue  de  Grenelle?  " 

"  No.  All  that  I  tell  you,"  said  Cerizet,  "I  get  from 
du  Portail." 

uAh  gaf  "  said  la  Peyrade,  lowering  his  voice,  "who 
is  du  Portail?  You  seem  to  have  known  him  for  some 
time.  A  man  of  j^our  force  ought  to  have  discovered 
the  real  character  of  a  man  who  seems  to  me  to  be  rather 
mysterious." 

"  My  friend,"  replied  Cerizet,  "  du  Portail  is  a  pretty 
strong  man.  He's  an  old  slyboots,  who  has  had  some 
post,  I  fancy,  in  the  administration  of  the  national 
domain,  or  something  of  that  kind,  under  government; 
in  which,  I  think,  he  must  have  been  employed  in  the 
departments  suppressed  under  the  Empire." 

"  Yes?  "  said  la  Peyrade. 

"  That 's  where  I  think  he  made  his  money,"  continued 
la  Peyrade;  "and  being  a  shrewd  old  fellow,  and  having 
a  natural  daughter  to  marry,  he  has  concocted  this  phil- 


538  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

anthropic  tale  of  her  being  the  daughter  of  an  old  friend 
named  Peyrade;  and  your  name  being  the  same  may  have 
given  him  the  idea  of  fastening  upon  you  —  for,  after 
all,  he  has  to  marry  her  to  somebody." 

"  Yes,  that 's  all  very  well ;  but  his  close  relations  with 
the  government,  and  the  interest  he  takes  in  elections, 
how  do  you  explain  all  that?  " 

"  Naturally  enough,"  replied  Cerizet.  "  Du  Portail  is 
a  man  who  loves  money,  and  likes  to  handle  it;  he  has 
done  Rastignac,  that  great  manipulator  of  elections,  who 
is,  I  think,  his  compatriot,  several  signal  services  as  an 
amateur;  Rastignac,  in  return,  gives  him  information, 
obtained  through  Nucingen,  which  enables  him  to  gamble 
at  the  Bourse." 

"Did  he  himself  tell  you  all  this?"  asked  la  Peyrade. 

"What  do  you  take  me  for?"  returned  Cerizet. 
"With  that  worthy  old  fellow,  from  whom  I  have  already 
wormed  a  promise  of  thirty  thousand  francs,  I  play  the 
ninny;  I  flatten  myself  to  nothing.  But  I've  made 
Bruneau  talk,  that  old  valet  of  his.  You  can  safely  ally 
yourself  to  his  family,  my  dear  fellow;  du  Portail  is 
powerfully  rich;  he'll  get  you  made  sub-prefect  some- 
where ;  and  thence  to  a  prefecture  and  a  fortune  is  but 
one  step." 

"Thanks  for  the  information,"  said  la  Peyrade;  "at 
least,  I  shall  know  on  which  foot  to  hop.  But  you  your- 
self, how  came  you  to  know  him?  V 

"  Oh!  that 's  quite  a  history;  by  my  help  he  was  able 
to  get  back  a  lot  of  diamonds  which  had  been  stolen  from 
him." 

At  this  moment  Corentin  entered  the  room. 

"All  is  well,"  he  said  to  la  Peyrade.  "There  are 
signs  of  returning  reason.  Bianchon,  to  whom  I  have 
told  all,  wishes  to  confer  with  you-,  therefore,  my  dear 
Monsieur  Cerizet,  we  will  postpone  until  this  evening,  if 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  539 

you  are  willing,  our  little  stud}'  over  the  Thuillier 
election." 

"Well,  so  here  you  have  him,  at  last!"  said  Cerizet, 
slapping  la  Peyrade's  shoulder. 

"  Yes,"  said  Corentin,  "and  you  know  what  I  prom- 
ised; you  may  rely  on  that." 

Cerizet  departed  joyful. 


540  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


XVI. 

CHECKMATE   TO    THUILLIER. 

The  day  after  that  evening,  when  Corentin,  La  Peyrade, 
and  Cerizet  were  to  have  had  their  consultation  in  refer- 
ence to  the  attack  on  Thuillier's  candidacy,  the  latter  was 
discussing  with  his  sister  Brigitte  the  letter  in  which 
Theodose  declined  the  hand  of  Celeste,  and  his  mind 
seemed  particularly  to  dwell  on  the  postscript  where  it 
was  intimated  that  la  Peyrade  might  not  continue  the 
editor  of  the  "  Echo  de  la  Bievre."  At  this  moment 
Henri,  the  "male  domestic,"  entered  the  room  to  ask  if 
his  master  would  receive  Monsieur  Cerizet. 

Thuillier's  first  impulse  was  to  deny  himself  to  that 
unwelcome  visitor.  Then,  thinking  better  of  it,  he 
reflected  that  if  la  Peyrade  suddenly  left  him  in  the  lurch, 
Cerizet  might  possibly  prove  a  precious  resource.  Con- 
sequently, he  ordered  Henri  to  show  him  in.  His  manner, 
however,  was  extremely  cold,  and  in  some  sort  expectant. 
As  for  Cerizet,  he  presented  himself  without  the  slightest 
embarrassment  and  with  the  air  of  a  man  who  had  calcu- 
lated all  the  consequences  of  the  step  he  was  taking. 

"Well,  my  dear  monsieur,"  he  began,  "I  suppose  by 
this  time  you  have  been  posted  as  to  the  Sieur  la 
Peyrade  ?  " 

"  What  may  you  mean  by  that?  "  said  Thuillier,  stiffly. 

"Well,  the  man,"  replied  Cerizet,  "who,  after  intrig- 
uing to  marry  your  goddaughter,  breaks  off  the  marriage 
abruptly  —  as  he  will,  before  long,  break  that  lion's- 
share  contract  he  made  you  sign  about  his  editorship  — 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  541 

can't  be,  I  should  suppose,  the  object  of  the  same  blind 
confidence  you  formerly  reposed  in  him." 

"Ah!"  said  Thuillier,  hastily,  "then  do  you  know 
anything  about  la  Peyrade's  intention  of  leaving  the 
newspaper?  " 

•'  No,"  said  the  other;  "on  the  terms  I  now  am  with 
him,  you  can  readily-  believe  we  don't  see  each  other; 
still  less  should  I  receive  his  confidences.  But  I  draw 
the  induction  from  the  well-known  character  of  the  per- 
son, and  you  may  be  sure  that  when  he  finds  it  for  his 
interest  to  leave  you,  he  '11  throw  you  away  like  an 
old  coat  —  I've  passed  that  way,  and  I  speak  from 
experience." 

"  Then  you  must  have  had  some  difficulties  with  him 
before  you  joined  my  paper?  "  said  Thuillier,  interroga- 
tively. 

"  Parbleu!  "  replied  Cerizet;  "  the  affair  of  this  house 
which  he  helped  you  to  buy  was  mine;  I  started  that 
hare.  He  was  to  put  me  in  relation  with  you,  and  make 
me  the  principal  tenant  of  the  house.  But  the  unfortu- 
nate affair  of  that  bidding-in  gave  him  a  chance  to 
knock  me  out  of  everything  and  get  all  the  profits  for 
himself." 

"  Profits ! "  exclaimed  Thuillier.  "  I  don't  see  that  he 
got  anything  out  of  that  transaction,  except  the  marriage 
which  he  now  refuses  —  " 

"But,"  interrupted  Cerizet,  "  there's  the  ten  thousand 
francs  he  got  out  of  you  on  pretence  of  the  cross  which 
you  never  received,  and  the  twenty-five  thousand  he  owes 
to  Madame  Lambert,  for  which  you  went  security,  and 
which  you  will  soon  have  to  pay  like  a  good  fellow." 

"What's  this  I  hear?"  cried  Brigitte,  up  in  arms; 
"twenty-five  thousand  francs  for  which  you  have  given 
security  ?  " 

"  Yes,  mademoiselle,"  interposed  Cerizet;  "  behind 
that  sum  which  this  woman    had  lent  him  there  was  a 


542  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

mystery,  and  if  I  had  not  laid  my  hand  on  the  true 
explanation,  there  would  certainly  have  been  a  very 
dirty  ending  to  it.  La  Peyrade  was  clever  enough  not 
ouly  to  whitewash  himself  in  Monsieur  Thuillier's  eyes, 
but  to  get  him  to  secure  the  debt." 

"  But,"  said  Thuillier,  "  how  do  you  know  that  I  did 
give  security  for  that  debt,  if  you  have  not  seen  him 
since  then?  " 

M  I  know  it  from  the  woman  herself,  who  tells  the  whole 
story  now  she  is  certain  of  being  paid." 

"Well,"  said  Brigitte  to  her  brother,  "a  pretty  busi- 
ness you  are  engaged  in !  " 

"Mademoiselle,"  said  Cerizet,  "  I  only  meant  to  warn 
Monsieur  Thuillier  a  little.  I  think  myself  that  you 
are  sure  to  be  paid.  Without  knowing  the  exact  partic- 
ulars of  this  new  marriage,  I  am  certain  the  family  would 
never  allow  him  to  owe  two  such  mortifying  debts;  if 
necessary,  I  should  be  very  glad  to  intervene." 

"Monsieur,"  said  Thuillier,  stiffly,  "thanking  you  for 
your  officious  intervention,  permit  me  to  say  that  it  sur- 
prises me  a  little,  for  the  manner  in  which  we  parted 
would  not  have  allowed  me  to  hope  it." 

"  Ah  ga  !  "  said  Cerizet;  "you  don't  think  I  was 
angry  with  you  for  that,  do  you?  I  pitied  you,  that  was 
all.  I  saw  you  under  the  spell,  and  I  said  to  myself: 
1  Leave  him  to  learn  la  Peyrade  by  experience.'  I  knew 
very  well  that  the  day  of  justice  would  dawn  for  me, 
and  before  long,  too.  La  Peyrade  is  a  man  who  does  n't 
make  you  wait  for  his  questionable  proceedings." 

"  Allow  me  to  say,"  remarked  Thuillier,  "  that  I  do 
not  consider  the  rupture  of  the  marriage  we  had  proposed 
a  questionable  proceeding.  The  matter  was  arranged, 
I  may  say,  by  mutual  consent." 

"And  the  trick  he  is  going  to  play  you  by  leaving  the 
paper  in  the  lurch,  and  the  debt  he  has  saddled  you  with, 
what  are  they?  " 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  543 

"  Monsieur  Cerizet,"  continued  Thuillier,  still  holding 
himself  on  the  reserve,  "  as  I  have  said  more  than  once 
to  la  Peyrade,  no  man  is  indispensable;  and  if  the 
editorship  of  my  paper  becomes  vacant,  I  feel  confident 
that  I  shall  at  once  meet  with  persons  very  eager  to 
offer  me  their  services." 

"  Is  it  for  me  you  say  that  ? "  asked  Cerizet.  ' '  Well,  you 
haven't  hit  the  nail;  for  if  you  did  me  the  honor  to 
want  my  services  it  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  grant 
them.  I  have  long  been  disgusted  with  journalism.  I 
let  la  Peyrade,  I  hardly  know  why,  persuade  me  to  make 
this  campaign  with  you;  it  didn't  turn  out  happily,  and 
I  have  vowed  to  myself  to  have  no  more  to  do  with  news- 
papers. It  was  about  another  matter  altogether  that  I 
came  to  speak  to  you." 

"  Ah!"  said  Thuillier. 

"  Yes,"  continued  Cerizet,  "remembering  the  business- 
like manner  in  which  you  managed  the  affair  of  this 
house  in  which  you  do  me  the  honor  to  receive  me,  I 
thought  I  could  not  do  better  than  to  call  your  attention 
to  a  matter  of  the  same  kind  which  I  have  just  now  in 
hand.  But  I  shall  not  do  as  la  Peyrade  did«,  —  make  a 
bargain  for  the  hand  of  your  goddaughter,  and  profess 
great  friendship  and  devotion  to  you  personally.  This 
is  purely  business,  and  I  expect  to  make  my  profit  out 
of  it.  Now,  as  I  still  desire  to  become  the  principal 
tenant  of  this  house,  —  the  letting  of  which  must  be  a 
care  and  a  disappointment  to  mademoiselle,  for  I  saw  as 
I  came  along  that  the  shops  were  still  unrented,  —  I  think 
that  this  lease  to  me,  if  you  will  make  it.  might  be  reck- 
oned in  to  my  share  of  the  profits.  You  see,  monsieur, 
that  the  object  of  my  visit  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
newspaper." 

"  What  is  this  new  affair?  "  said  Brigitte ;  "  that 's  the 
first  thing  to  know." 

"It  relates  to  a  farm  in  Beauce,  which  has  just  been 


544  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

sold  for  a  song,  and  it  is  placed  in  my  hands  to  resell, 
at  an  advance,  but  a  small  one;  you  could  really  buy  it, 
as  the  saying  is,  for  a  bit  of  bread." 

And  Cerizet  went  on  to  explain  the  whole  mechanism 
of  the  affair,  which  we  need  not  relate  here,  as  no  one 
but  Brigitte  would  take  any  interest  in  it.  The  state- 
ment was  clear  and  precise,  and  it  took  close  hold  on  the 
old  maid's  mind.  Even  Thuillier  himself,  in  spite  of  his 
inward  distrust,  was  obliged  to  own  that  the  affair  had. 
all  the  appearance  of  a  good  speculation. 

u  Only,"  said  Brigitte,  "  we  must  first  see  the  farm 
ourselves." 

This,  the  reader  will  remember,  was  her  answer  to  la 
Peyrade  when  he  first  proposed  the  purchase  of  the  house 
at  the  Madeleine. 

"Nothing  is  easier  than  that,"  said  Cerizet.  "I  my- 
self want  to  see  it,  and  I  have  been  intending  to  make  a 
little  excursion  there.  If  you  like,  I  '11  be  at  your  door 
this  afternoon  with  a  post-chaise,  and  to-morrow  morn- 
ing, very  early,  we  can  examine  the  farm,  breakfast  at 
some  inn  near  by,  and  be  back  in  time  for  dinner." 

"A  post-chaise!  "  said  Brigitte,  "  that 's  very  lordly; 
why  not  take  the  diligence?  " 

"  Diligences  are  so  uncertain,"  replied  Cerizet;  ''you 
never  know  at  what  time  they  will  get  to  a  place.  But 
you  need  not  think  about  the  expense,  for  I  should  other- 
wise go  alone,  and  I  am  only  too  happy  to  offer  you  two 
seats  in  my  carriage." 

To  misers,  small  gains  are  often  determining  causes 
in  great  matters;  after  a  little  resistance  pro  forma, 
Brigitte  ended  by  accepting  the  proposal,  and  three  hours 
later  the  trio  were  on  the  road  to  Chartres,  Cerizet  hav- 
ing advised  Thuillier  not  to  let  la  Peyrade  know  of  his 
absence,  lest  he  might  take  some  unfair  advantage  of  it. 

The  next  day,  by  five  o'clock,  the  party  had  returned, 
and  the  brother  and  sister,  who  kept  their  opinions  to 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  545 

themselves  in  presence  of  Cerizet,  were  both  agreed  that 
the  purchase  was  a  good  one.  They  had  found  the  soil 
of  the  best  quality,  the  buildings  in  perfect  repair,  the 
cattle  looked  sound  and  healthy;  in  short,  this  idea  of 
becoming  the  mistress  of  rural  property  seemed  to 
Brigitte  the  final  consecration  of  opulence. 

"  Minard,"  she  remarked,  "  has  only  a  town -house  and 
invested  capital,  whereas  we  shall  have  all  that  and  a 
country-place  besides;  one  can't  be  really  rich  without 
it." 

Thuillier  was  not  sufficiently  under  the  charm  of  that 
dream  —  the  realization  of  which  was,  in  any  case,  quite 
distant  —  to  forget,  even  for  a  moment,  the  ;'  ICcho  de 
la    Bievre "    and    his    candidacy.     No   sooner    had    he 
reached  home  than  he  asked  for  the  morning's  paper. 
"  It  has  not  come,"  said  the  "  male  domestic.1' 
"  That 's  a  fine  distribution,  when  even  the  owner  of 
the  paper  is  not  served!  "  cried  Thuillier,  discontentedly. 
Although  it  was  nearly  dinner-time,  and  after  his  jour- 
ney he  would  much  rather  have  taken  a  bath  than  rush  to 
the  rue  Saint-Dominique,  Thuillier  ordered  a  cab  and 
drove  at  once  to  the  office  of  the  "  Echo." 

There  a  fresh  disappointment  met  him.  The  paper 
"  was  made,"  as  they  say,  and  all  the  employes  had  de- 
parted, even  la  Peyrade.  As  for  Coffinet,  who  was  not 
to  be  found  at  his  post  of  office-boy,  nor  yet  at  his  other 
post  of  porter,  he  had  gone  "of  an  errand,"  his  wife 
said,  taking  the  key  of  the  closet  in  which  the  remaining 
copies  of  the  paper  were  locked  up.  Impossible,  there- 
fore, to  procure  the  number  which  the  unfortunate  pro- 
prietor had  come  so  far  to  fetch. 

To  describe  Thuillier' s  indignation  would  be  impos- 
sible. He  marched  up  and  down  the  room,  talking  aloud 
to  himself,  as  people  do  in  moments  of  excitement. 

"  I  '11  turn  them  all  out! "  he  cried.  And  we  are  forced 
to  omit  the  rest  of  the  furious  objurgation. 

35 


546  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

As  he  ended  his  anathema  a  rap  was  heard  on  the 
door. 

u  Come  in!"  said  Thuillier,  in  a  tone  that  depicted 
his  wrath  and  his  frantic  impatience. 

The  door  opened,  and  Minard  rushed  precipitately 
into  his  arms. 

"My  good,  my  excellent  friend!  "  cried  the  mayor  of 
the  eleventh  arrondissement,  concluding  his  embrace 
with  a  hearty  shake  of  the  hand. 

"  Why!  what  is  it?"  said  Thuillier,  unable  to  compre- 
hend the  warmth  of  this  demonstration. 

"Ah!  my  dear  friend,"  continued  Minard,  "such  an 
admirable  proceeding!  really  chivalrous!  most  disinter- 
ested !  The  effect,  I  assure  you,  is  quite  stupendous  in 
the  arrondissement." 

"  But  what,  I  say?"  cried  Thuillier,  impatiently. 

"  The  article,  the  whole  action,"  continued  Minard, 
"  so  noble,  so  elevated !  " 

"But  what  article?  what  action?"  said  the  proprietor 
of  the  "  Echo,"  getting  quite  beside  himself. 

"  The  article  of  this  morning."  said  Minard. 

"  The  article  of  this  morning?  " 

"Ah  c<i !  did  you  write  it  when  you  were  asleep;  or, 
like  Monsieur  Jourdain  doing  prose,  do  you  do  heroism 
without  knowing  it?  " 

"I!  I  haven't  written  any  article!  "  cried  Thuillier. 
"  I  have  been  away  from  Paris  for  a  day,  and  I  don't 
even  know  what  is  in  this  morning's  paper;  and  the 
of  lice-boy  is  not  here  to  give  me  a  copy." 

"  I  have  one,"  said  Minard,  pulling  the  much  desired 
paper  from  his  pocket.  "  If  the  article  is  not  yours  you 
have  certainly  inspired  it;  in  any  case,  the  deed  is 
done." 

Thuillier  hurriedly  unfolded  the  sheet  Minard  had 
given  him,  and  devoured  rather  than  read  the  following 
article :  — 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  547 

"  Long  enough  has  the  proprietor  of  this  regenerated  journal 
submitted  without  complaint  and  without  reply  to  the  cowardly 
insinuations  with  which  a  venal  press  insults  all  citizens  who, 
strong  in  their  convictions,  refuse  to  pass  beneath  the  Caudine 
Forks  of  power.  Long  enough  has  a  man,  who  has  already 
given  proofs  of  devotion  and  abnegation  in  the  important  func- 
tions of  the  sedility  of  Paris,  allowed  these  sheets  to  call  him 
ambitious  and  self-seeking.  Monsieur  Jerome  Thuillier,  strong 
in  his  dignity,  has  suffered  such  coarse  attacks  to  pass  him  with 
contempt.  Encouraged  by  this  disdainful  silence,  the  stipen- 
diaries of  the  press  have  dared  to  write  that  this  journal,  a  work 
of  conviction  and  of  the  most  disinterested  patriotism,  was  but 
the  stepping-stone  of  a  man,  the  speculation  of  a  seeker  for  elec- 
tion. Monsieur  Jerome  Thuillier  has  held  himself  impassible 
before  these  shameful  imputations  because  justice  and  truth  are 
patient,  and  he  bided  his  time  to  scotch  the  reptile.  That  time 
has  come." 

"That  deuce  of  aPeyrade!"  said  Thuillier,  stopping 
short;  "  how  he  does  touch  it  off!  " 
"  It  is  magnificent!"  cried  Minard. 
Reading  aloud,  Thuillier  continued:  — 

"  Every  one,  friends  and  enemies  alike,  can  bear  witness  that 
Monsieur  Jerome  Thuillier  has  done  nothing  to  seek  a  candidacy 
which  was  offered  to  him  spontaneously." 

"That's  evident,"  said  Thuillier,  interrupting  himself. 
Then  he  resumed :  — 

"  But,  since  his  sentiments  are  so  odiously  misrepresented, 
and  his  intentions  so  falsely  travestied,  Monsieur  Jerome  Thuillier 
owes  it  to  himself,  and  above  all  to  the  great  national  party  of 
which  he  is  the  humblest  soldier,  to  give  an  example  which 
shall  confound  the  vile  sycophants  of  power." 

"  It  is  fine,  the  way  la  Peyrade  poses  me!"  said  Thuil- 
lier, pausing  once  more  in  his  reading.  "I  see  now  why 
he  didn't  send  me  the  paper;  he  wanted  to  enjoy  my  sur- 
prise—  'confound  the  vile  sycophants  of  power!'  how 
fine  that  is!  " 


548  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

After  which  reflection,  he  continued:  — 

"  Monsieur  Thuillier  was  so  far  from  founding  this  journal 
of  dynastic  opposition  to  support  and  promote  his  election  that, 
at  the  very  moment  when  the  prospects  of  that  election  seem 
most  favorable  to  himself  and  most  disastrous  to  his  rivals,  he 
here  declares  publicly,  and  in  the  most  formal,  absolute,  and 
irrevocable  manner  that  he  renounces  his  candidacy." 

"  What?  "  cried  Thuillier,  thinking  he  had  read  wrong, 
or  had  misunderstood  what  he  read. 

11  Go  on!  go  on!  "  said  the  mayor  of  the  eleventh. 

Then  as  Thuillier,  with  a  bewildered  air,  seemed  not 
disposed  to  continue  his  reading,  Minard  took  the  paper 
from  his  hands  and  read  the  rest  of  the  article  himself, 
beginning  where  the  other  had  left  off :  — 

"  Renounces  his  candidacy  ;  and  he  strongly  urges  the  electors 
to  transfer  to  Monsieur  Minard,  mayor  of  the  eleventh  arron- 
dissement  and  his  friend  and  colleague  in  his  municipal  func- 
tions, all  the  votes  with  which  they  seemed  about  to  honor 
him." 

"But  this  is  infamous!"  cried  Thuillier,  recovering 
his  speech;  "you  have  bought  that  Jesuit  la  Peyrade." 

"  So,"  said  Minard,  stupefied  by  Thuillier' s  attitude, 
"  the  article  was  not  agreed  upon  between  you?  " 

"  The  wretch  has  profited  by  my  absence  to  slip  it  into 
the  paper;  I  understand  now  why  he  prevented  a  copy 
from  reaching  me  to-day." 

"My  dear  friend,"  said  Minard,  "what  you  tell  me 
will  seem  incredible  to  the  public." 

"  I  tell  you  it  is  treachery;  it  is  an  abominable  trap. 
Renounce  my  candidacy!  —  why  should  I?" 

"  You  understand,  my  dear  friend,"  said  Minard, 
"that  I  am  truly  sorry  if  your  confidence  has  been  abused, 
but  I  have  just  issued  my  circular  manifesto;  the  die  is 
cast,  and  luck  to  the  lucky  now." 

"  Leave  me,"  said  Thuillier;  "  it  is  a  comedy  for  which 
you  have  paid." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  549 

"  Monsieur  Thuillier,"  said  Minard,  in  a  threatening 
voice,  "  I  advise  you  not  to  repeat  those  words,  unless 
you  are  ready  to  give  me  satisfaction  for  them." 

Happily  for  Thuillier,  who,  we  may  remember,  had 
made  his  profession  of  faith  as  to  civic  courage  some 
time  before,  he  was  relieved  from  answering  by  Coffinet, 
who  now  opened  the  door  of  the  editorial  sanctum,  and 
announced: — 

"  Messieurs  the  electors  of  the  twelfth  arrondissement." 

The  arrondissement  was  represented  on  this  occasion 
by  five  persons.  An  apothecary,  chairman  of  the  deputa- 
tion, proceeded  to  address  Thuillier  in  the  following 
terms :  — 

"  We  have  come,  monsieur,  after  taking  cognizance  of 
an  article  inserted  this  morning  in  the  'Echo  de  la 
Bievre,'  to  inquire  of  you  what  may  be  precisely  the 
origin  and  bearing  of  that  article;  thinking  it  incredible 
that,  having  solicited  our  suffrages,  you  should,  on  the 
eve  of  this  election,  and  from  a  most  mistaken  puritan- 
ism,  have  cast  disorder  and  disunion  into  our  ranks,  and 
probably  have  caused  the  triumph  of  the  ministerial 
candidate.  A  candidate  does  not  belong  to  himself;  he 
belongs  to  the  electors  who  have  promised  to  honor  him 
with  their  votes.  But,"  continued  the  orator,  casting 
his  eye  at  Minard,  "the  presence  in  these  precincts  of  the 
candidate  whom  you  have  gone  out  of  your  way  to 
recommend  to  us,  indicates  that  between  you  and  him 
there  is  connivance;  and  I  have  no  need  to  ask  who  is 
being  here  deceived." 

"  No,  messieurs,  no,"  said  Thuillier;  "  I  have  not  re- 
nounced my  candidacy.  That  article  was  written  and 
printed  without  my  knowledge  or  consent.  To-morrow 
you  will  see  the  denial  of  it  in  the  same  paper,  and  you 
will  also  learn  that  the  infamous  person  who  has  betrayed 
my  confidence  is  no  longer  the  editor  of  this  journal." 

"  Then,"  said  the  orator  of  the  deputation,  "  in  spite 


550  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

of  your  declaration  to  the  contrary,  you  do  continue  to 
be  the  candidate  of  the  Opposition?" 

"Yes,  messieurs,  until  death;  and  I  beg  you  to  use 
your  utmost  influence  in  the  quarter  to  neutralize  the 
effect  of  this  deliberate  falsehood  until  I  am  able  to 
officially  present  the  most  formal  disavowal." 

u  Hear!  hear!  "  said  the  electors. 

"  And,  as  for  the  presence  of  Monsieur  Minard,  my 
competitor,  in  these  precincts,  I  have  not  invited  it;  and 
at  the  moment  when  you  entered  this  room,  I  was 
engaged  in  a  very  sharp  and  decided  explanation  with 
him." 

"  Hear!  hear!  "  said  the  electors  again. 

Then,  after  cordially  shaking  the  hand  of  the  apothe- 
cary, Thuillier  conducted  the  deputation  to  the  outer 
door  of  the  apartment;  after  which,  returning  to  the 
editorial  sanctum,  he  said:  — 

"  My  dear  Minard,  I  withdraw  the  words  which 
wounded  you ;  but  you  can  see  now  what  justification  J 
had  for  my  indignation." 

Here  Coffinet  again  opened  the  door  and  announced :  — 

"Messieurs  the  electors  of  the  eleventh  arrondisse- 
ment." 

The  arrondissement  was  represented  this  time  by  seven 
persons.  A  linen-draper,  chairman  of  the  delegation, 
addressed  Thuillier  in  the  following  speech:  — 

"  Monsieur,  it  is  with  sincere  admiration  that  we  have 
learned  this  morning  from  the  columns  of  your  paper,  the 
great  civic  act  by  which  you  have  touched  all  hearts. 
You  have  shown,  in  thus  retiring,  a  most  unusual  disin- 
terestedness, and  the  esteem  of  your  fellow-citizens  —  " 

"Excuse  me,"  said  Thuillier,  interrupting  him,  "I 
cannot  allow  you  to  continue;  the  article  about  which 
you  are  so  good  as  to  congratulate  me,  was  inserted  by 
mistake." 

"What!"  said    the  linen-draper;  "then  do  you  not 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  551 

retire?  Can  you  suppose  that  in  opposition  to  the  candi- 
dacy of  Monsieur  Minard  (whose  presence  in  these  pre- 
cincts seems  to  me  rather  singular)  you  have  the  slightest 
chance  of  success?" 

"  Monsieur,"  said  Thuillier,  "have  the  goodness  to 
request  the  electors  of  your  arrondissement  to  await  the 
issue  of  to-morrow's  paper,  in  which  I  shall  furnish 
categorical  explanations  of  the  most  distinct  character. 
The  article  to-day  is  the  result  of  a  misunderstanding." 

"  It  will  be  a  sad  pity,  monsieur,"  said  the  linen- 
draper,  "  if  you- lose  this  occasion  to  place  yourself  in 
the  eyes  of  your  fellow-citizens  beside  the  Washingtons 
and  other  great  men  of  antiquity." 

"  I  say  again,  to-morrow,  messieurs,"  said  Thuillier. 
"I  am  none  the  less  sensible  to  the  honor  you  do  me, 
and  I  trust  that  when  you  know  the  whole  truth,  I  shall 
not  suffer  in  your  esteem." 

"A  pretty  queer  mess  this  seems  to  be,"  said  the  voice 
of  an  elector. 

"Yes,"  said  another;  "it  looks  as  if  they  meant  to 
bamboozle  us." 

"Messieurs,  messieurs!"  cried  the  chairman,  putting 
a  stop  to  the  outbreak;  "to-morrow  —  we  will  wait  until 
to-morrow  for  the  promised  explanations." 

Whereupon,  the  deputation  retired. 

It  is  not  likely  that  Thuillier  would  have  accompanied 
them  beyond  the  door  of  the  sanctum,  but  in  any  case 
he  was  prevented  by  the  sudden  entrance  of  la  Peyrade. 

"  I  have  just  come  from  your  house,  my  dear  fellow," 
said  the  Provencal;  "they  told  me  I  should  find  you 
here." 

"You  have  come,  doubtless,  for  the  purpose  of  explain- 
ing to  me  the  strange  article  you  allowed  yourself  to 
insert  in  my  name." 

"  Precisely,"  said  la  Peyrade.  "The  remarkable  man 
whom  you  know,  and  whose  powerful  influence  you  have 


552  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

already  felt,  confided  to  me  yesterday,  in  your  interests, 
the  plans  of  the  government,  and  I  saw  at  once  that  your 
defeat  was  inevitable.  I  wished  therefore  to  secure  to 
you  an  honorable  and  dignified  retreat.  There  was  no 
time  to  lose;  you  were  absent  from  Paris,  and  there- 
fore—" 

"  Very  good,  monsieur,"  said  Thuillier;  "  but  you  will 
please  take  notice  that  from  the  present  moment  you  are 
no  longer  the  editor  of  this  paper." 

uThat  is  what  I  came  to  tell  you." 

44  Perhaps  you  also  came  to  settle  the  little  account  we 
have  together." 

44  Messieurs,"  said  Minard,  44 1  see  that  this  is  a  busi- 
ness interview;  I  shall  therefore  take  leave  of  you." 

As  soon  as  Minard  had  left  the  room,  la  Peyrade  pulled 
out  his  pocket-book. 

44  Here  are  ten  thousand  francs,"  he  said,  44  which  I  will 
beg  you  to  remit  to  Mademoiselle  Brigitte;  and  here, 
also,  is  the  bond  by  which  you  secured  the  payment  of 
twenty-five  thousand  francs  to  Madame  Lambert;  that 
sum  I  have  now  paid  in  full,  and  here  is  the  receipt." 

44  Very  good,  monsieur,"  said  Thuillier. 

La  Peyrade  bowed  and  went  away. 

44  Serpent!  "  said  Thuillier  as  he  watched  him  go. 

44  Cerizet  said  the  right  thing,"  thought  la  Peyrade,  — 
44  a  pompous  imbecile!  " 

The  blow  struck  at  Thuillier's  candidacy  was  mortal, 
but  Minard  did  not  profit  by  it.  While  the  pair  were 
contending  for  votes,  a  government  man,  an  aide-de- 
camp to  the  king,  arrived  with  his  hands  full  of  tobacco 
licenses  and  other  electoral  small  change,  and,  like  the 
third  thief,  he  slipped  between  the  two  who  were  thump- 
ing each  other,  and  carried  off  the  booty. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  Brigitte  did  not  get  her  farm 
in  Beauce.  That  was  only  a  mirage,  by  help  of  which 
Thuillier  was  enticed  out  of  Paris    Ion";  enough  for  la 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  553 

Peyrade  to  deal  his  blow,  —  a  service  rendered  to  the 
government  on  the  one  hand,  but  also  a  precious  ven- 
geance for  the  many  humiliations  he  had  undergone. 

Thuillier  had  certainly  some  suspicions  as  to  the 
complicity  of  Cerizet,  but  that  worthy  managed  to 
justify  himself;  and  by  manoeuvring  the  sale  of  the 
"Echo  de  la  Bievre,"  now  become  a  nightmare  to  its 
luckless  owner,  he  ended  by  appearing  as  white  as  snow. 

The  paper  was  secretly  bought  up  by  Corentin,  and  the 
late  opposition  sheet  became  a  canard  sold  on  Sundays 
in  the  wine-shops  and  concocted  in  the  dens  of  the 
police. 


554  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 


XVII. 

IN    THE    EXERCISE    OF    HIS    FUNCTIONS. 

About  two  months  after  the  scene  in  which  la  Peyrade 
had  been  convinced  that  through  a  crime  of  his  past  life 
his  future  was  irrevocably  settled,  he  (being  now  married 
to  his  victim,  who  was  beginning  to  have  lucid  intervals, 
though  the  full  return  of  her  reason  would  not  take  place 
until  the  occasion  indicated  by  the  doctors)  was  sitting 
one  morning  with  the  head  of  the  police  in  the  latter's 
office.  Taking  part  in  the  work  of  the  department,  the 
young  man  was  serving  an  apprenticeship  under  that 
great  master  in  the  difficult  and  delicate  functions  to 
which  he  was  henceforth  riveted.  But  Corentin  found 
that  his  pupil  did  not  bring  to  this  initiation  all  the 
ardor  and  amiability  that  he  desired.  It  was  plain  that 
in  la  Peyrade's  soul  there  was  a  sense  of  forfeiture  and 
degradation;  time  would  get  the  better  of  that  impres- 
sion, but  the  callus  was  not  yet  formed. 

Opening  a  number  of  sealed  envelopes  inclosing  the 
reports  of  his  various  agents,  Corentin  glanced  over  these 
documents,  seldom  as  useful  as  the  public  suppose,  cast- 
ing them  one  after  another  contemptuously  into  a  basket, 
whence  they  issued  in  a  mass  for  the  burning.  But  to 
one  of  them  the  great  man  evidently  gave  some  particular 
attention;  as  he  read  it  a  smile  flickered  on  his  lips, 
and  when  he  had  finished,  instead  of  adding  it  to  the  pile 
in  the  basket,  he  gave  it  to  la  Peyrade. 

"Here,"  he  said,  '"here's  something  that  concerns 
you;  it  shows  that  in  our  profession,  which  just  now 
seems  to  you  unpleasantly  serious,  we  do  occasionally 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  555 

meet  with  comedies.  Read  it  aloud;  it  will  cheer 
us  up." 

Before  la  Peyrade  began  to  read,  Corentin  added:  — 

"  I  ought  to  tell  you  that  the  report  is  from  a  man 
called  Henri,  whom  Madame  Komorn  introduced  as  man- 
servant at  the  Thuilliers' ;  you  probably  remember  him." 

"  So!  "  said  la  Peyrade,  "  servants  placed  in  families! 
is  that  one  of  your  methods?  " 

"  Sometimes,"  replied  Corentin;  "  in  order  to  know  all, 
we  must  use  all  means.  But  a  great  many  lies  are  told 
about  us  on  that  subject.  It  is  not  true  that  the  police, 
making  a  system  of  it,  has,  at  certain  periods,  by  a 
general  enrolment  of  lacqueys  and  lady's-maids,  estab- 
lished a  vast  network  in  private  families.  Nothing  is 
fixed  and  absolute  in  our  manner  of  proceeding;  we  act 
in  accordance  with  the  time  and  circumstances.  I  wanted 
an  ear  and  an  influence  in  the  Thuillier  household; 
accordingly,  I  let  loose  the  trodollo  upon  it,  and  she,  in 
turn,  partly  to  assist  herself,  installed  there  one  of  our 
men,  an  intelligent  fellow,  as  you  will  see  for  yourself. 
But  for  all  that,  if,  at  another  time,  a  servant  came  and 
offered  to  sell  me  the  secrets  of  his  master,  I  should  have 
him  arrested,  and  let  a  warning  reach  the  ears  of  the 
family  to  distrust  the  other  servants.  Now  go  on,  and 
read  that  report." 

"  Monsieur  the  Director  of  the  Secret  Police,"  read 
la  Peyrade  aloud,  —  "I  did  not  stay  long  with  the  little  baron ; 
he  is  a  man  wholly  occupied  in  frivolous  pleasures  ;  and  there 
was  nothing  to  be  gathered  there  that  was  worthy  of  a  re- 
port to  you.  I  have  found  another  place,  where  I  have  already 
witnessed  several  things  which  fit  into  the  mission  that  Madame 
de  Godollo  gave. me,  and  therefore,  thinking  them  likely  to  in- 
terest you,  I  hasten  to  bring  them  to  your  knowledge.  The 
household  in  which  I  am  now  employed  is  that  of  an  old  savant, 
named  Monsieur  Picot,  who  lives  on  a  first  floor,  Place  de  la 
Madeleine,  in  the  house  and  apartmeut  formerly  occupied  by 
my  late  masters,  the  Thuilliers  —  " 


556  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"What!"  cried  la  Peyrade,  interrupting  his  reading, 
"Pere  Picot,  that  ruined  old  lunatic,  occupying  such  an 
apartment  as  that?  " 

"  Go  on,  go  on !  "  said  Corentin ;  "  life  is  full  of  many 
strange  things.  You  '11  find  the  explanation  farther  along ; 
for  our  correspondent  —  it  is  the  defect  of  those  fellows 
to  waste  themselves  on  details  —  is  only  too  fond  of  dot- 
ting his  ^s." 

La  Peyrade  read  on :  — 

"  The  Thuilliers  left  this  apartment  some  weeks  ago  to  return 
to  their  Latin  quarter.  Mademoiselle  Brigitte  never  really 
liked  our  sphere ;  her  total  want  of  education  made  her  ill  at 
ease.  Just  because  I  speak  correctly,  she  was  always  calling  me 
1  the  orator,'  and  she  could  not  endure  Monsieur  Pascal,  her 
porter,  because,  being  beadle  in  the  church  of  the  Madeleine,  he 
had  manners :  she  even  found  something  to  say  against  the 
dealers  in  the  great  market  behind  the  church,  where,  of  course, 
she  bought  her  provisions  ;  she  complained  that  they  gave  them- 
selves capable  airs,  merely  because  they  are  not  so  coarse-tongued 
as  those  of  the  Halle,  and  only  laughed  at  her  when  she  tried  to 
beat  them  down.  She  has  leased  the  whole  house  to  a  certain 
Monsieur  Cerizet  (a  very  ugly  man,  with  a  nose  all  eaten  away) 
for  an  annual  rent  of  fifty-five  thousand  francs.  This  tenant 
seems  to  know  what  he  is  about.  He  has  lately  married  an 
actress  at  one  of  the  minor  theatres,  Mademoiselle  Olympe 
Cardinal,  and  he  was  just  about  to  occupy  himself  the  first-floor 
apartment,  where  he  proposed  to  establish  his  present  business. 
namely,  insurance  for  the  dots  of  children,  when  Monsieur 
Picot,  arriving  from  England  with  his  wife,  a  very  rich  English- 
woman, saw  the  apartment  and  offered  such  a  good  price  that 
Monsieur  Cerizet  felt  constrained  to  take  it.  That  was  the 
time  when,  by  the  help  of  M.  Pascal,  the  porter,  with  whom  I 
have  been  careful  to  maintain  good  relations,  I  entered  the 
household  of  Monsieur  Picot." 

"  Monsieur  Picot  married  to  a  rich  Englishwoman! " 
exclaimed  la  Peyrade,  interrupting  himself  again ;  "but 
it  is  incomprehensible." 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  557 

"Go  on,  I  tell  you,"  said  Corentin;  "you'll  compre- 
hend it  presently." 

"  The  fortune  of  my  new  master,"  continued  la  Peyrade,  "  is 
quite  a  history ;  and  I  speak  of  it  to  Monsieur  le  directeur 
because  another  person  in  whom  Madame  de  Godollo  was 
interested  has  his  marriage  closely  mixed  up  in  it.  That  other 
person  is  Monsieur  Felix  Phellion,  the  inventor  of  a  star,  who? 
in  despair  at  not  being  able  to  marry  that  demoiselle  whom 
they  wanted  to  give  to  the  Sieur  la  Peyrade  whom  Madame  de 
Godollo  made  such  a  fool  of  —  " 

"Scoundrel!"  said  the  Provencal,  in  a  parenthesis. 
"Is  that  how  he  speaks  of  me?  He  does  n't  know  who  I 
am." 

Corentin  laughed  heartily  and  exhorted  his  pupil  to 
read  on. 

"  —  who,  in  despair  at  not  being  able  to  marry  that  demoiselle, 
.  .  .  went  to  England  in  order  to  embark  for  a  journey  round 
the  world  —  a  lover's  notion !  Learning  of  this  departure, 
Monsieur  Picot,  his  former  professor,  who  took  great  interest  in 
his  pupil,  went  after  him  to  prevent  that  nonsense,  which 
turned  out  not  to  be  difficult.  The  English  are  naturally  very 
jealous  of  discoveries,  and  when  they  saw  Monsieur  Phellion 
coming  to  embark  at  the  heels  of  their  own  savants  they  asked 
him  for  his  permit  from  the  Admiralty;  which,  not  having 
provided,  he  could  not  produce ;  so  then  they  laughed  in  his 
face  and  would  not  let  him  embark  at  all,  fearing  that  he 
should  prove  more  learned  than  they." 

"  He  is  a  fine  hand  at  the  entente  cordiale,  your  Mon- 
sieur Henri,"  said  la  Peyrade,  gayly. 

"  Yes,"  replied  Corentin;  "  you  will  be  struck,  in  the 
reports  of  nearly  all  our  agents,  with  this  general  and 
perpetual  inclination  to  calumniate.  But  what 's  to  be 
done?     For  the  trade  of  spies  we  can't  have  angels." 

14  Left  upon  the  shore,  Telemachus  and  his  mentor  —  " 


558  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

"  You  see  our  men  are  lettered,"  commented  Corentin. 

"  —  Telemachus  and  his  mentor  thought  best  to  return  to 
France,  and  were  about  to  do  so  when  Monsieur  Picot  received 
a  letter  such  as  none  but  an  Englishwoman  could  write.  It 
told  him  that  the  writer  had  read  his  "  Theory  of  Perpetual 
Motion,"  and  had  also  heard  of  his  magnificent  discovery  of  a 
star ;  that  she  regarded  him  as  a  genius  only  second  to  Newton, 
and  that  if  the  hand  of  her  who  addressed  him,  joined  to 
eighty  thousand  pounds  sterling  —  that  is,  two  millions  —  of 
dot,  was  agreeable  to  him  it  was  at  his  disposal.  The  first 
thought  of  the  good  man  was  to  make  his  pupil  marry  her,  but 
finding  that  impossible,  he  told  her,  before  accepting  on  his 
own  account,  that  he  was  old  and  three-quarters  blind,  and  had 
never  discovered  a  star,  and  did  not  own  a  penny.  The  Eng- 
lishwoman replied  that  Milton  was  not  young  either,  and  was 
altogether  blind;  that  Monsieur  Picot  seemed  to  her  to  have 
nothing  worse  than  a  cataract,  for  she  knew  all  about  it,  being 
the  daughter  of  a  great  oculist,  and  she  would  have  him  operated 
upon  ;  that  as  for  the  star,  she  did  not  care  so  very  much  about 
that ;  it  was  the  author  of  the  "  Theory  of  Perpetual  Motion" 
who  was  the  man  of  her  dreams,  and  to  whom  she  again  offered 
her  hand  with  eighty  thousand  pounds  sterling  (two  millions) 
of  dot.  Monsieur  Picot  replied  that  if  his  sight  were  restored 
and  she  would  consent  to  live  in  Paris,  for  he  hated  England, 
he  would  let  himself  be  married.  The  operation  was  per- 
formed and  was  successful,  and,  at  the  end  of  three  weeks  the 
newly  married  pair  arrived  in  the  capital.  These  details  I 
obtained  from  the  lady's  maid,  with  whom  I  am  on  the 
warmest  terms." 

"  Oh !  the  puppy !  "  said  Corentin,  laughing. 

"  The  above  is  therefore  hearsay,  but  what  remains  to  be  told 
to  Monsieur  le  directeur  are  facts  of  which  I  can  speak  de  visu, 
and  to  which  I  am,  consequently,  in  a  position  to  certify.  As 
soon  as  Monsieur  and  Madame  Picot  had  installed  themselves, 
which  was  done  in  the  most  sumptuous  and  comfortable  man- 
ner, my  master  gave  me  a  number  of  invitations  to  dinner  to 
carry  to  the  Thuillier  family,  the  Colleville  family,  the  Minard 
family,  the  Abbe"  Gondrin,  vicar  of  the  Madeleine,  and  nearly 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  559 

all  the  guests  who  were  present  at  another  dinner  a  few  months 
earlier,  when  he  had  an  encounter  with  Mademoiselle  Thuillier, 
and  behaved,  I  must  say,  in  a  rather  singular  manner.  All  the 
persons  who  received  these  invitations  were  so  astonished  to 
learn  that  the  old  man  Picot  had  married  a  rich  wife  and  was 
living  in  the  Thuilliers'  old  apartment  that  most  of  them  came 
to  inquire  of  Monsieur  Pascal,  the  porter,  to  see  if  they  were 
hoaxed.  The  information  they  obtained  being  honest  and 
honorable,  the  whole  society  arrived  punctually  on  time ;  but 
Monsieur  Picot  did  not  appear.  The  guests  were  received  by 
Madame  Picot,  who  does  not  speak  French  and  could  only  say, 
'  My  husband  is  coming  soon  ; '  after  which,  not  being  able  to 
make  further  conversation,  the  company  were  dull  and  ill  at 
ease.  At  last  Monsieur  Picot  arrived,  and  all  present  were 
stupefied  on  seeing,  instead  of  an  old  blind  man,  shabbily  dressed, 
a  handsome  young  elderly  man,  bearing  his  years  jauntily,  like 
Monsieur  Ferville  of  the  Gymnase,  who  said  with  a  lively  air  : 

" '  I  beg  your  pardon,  mesdames,  for  not  being  here  at  the 
moment  of  your  arrival ;  but  I  was  at  the  Academy  of  Sciences, 
awaiting  the  result  of  an  election, —  that  of  Monsieur  Felix 
Phellion,  who  has  been  elected  unanimously  less  three  votes.' 

"  This  news  seemed  to  have  a  great  effect  upon  the  company. 
So  then  Monsieur  Picot  resumed  :  — 

"'I  must  also,  mesdames,  ask  your  pardon  for  the  rather 
improper  manner  in  which  I  behaved  a  short  time  ago  in  the 
house  where  we  are  now  assembled.  My  excuse  must  be  my 
late  infirmity,  the  annoyances  of  a  family  lawsuit,  and  of  an 
old  housekeeper  who  robbed  me  and  tormented  me  in  a  thou- 
sand ways,  from  whom  I  am  happily  delivered.  To-day  you. 
see  me  another  man,  rejuvenated  and  rich  with  the  blessings  be- 
stowed upon  me  by  the  amiable  woman  who  has  given  me  her 
hand  ;  and  I  should  be  in  the  happiest  frame  of  mind  to  receive 
you  if  the  recollection  of  my  young  friend,  whose  eminence  as  a 
man  of  science  has  just  Jbeen  consecrated  by  the  Academy,  did 
not  cast  upon  my  mind  a  veil  of  sadness.  All  here  present,'  con- 
tinued Monsieur  Picot,  raising  his  voice,  which  is  rather  loud, 
1  are  guilty  towards  him  :  I,  for  ingratitude  when  he  gave  me  the 
glory  of  his  discovery  and  the  reward  of  his  immortal  labors ; 
that  young  lady,  whom  I  see  over  there  with  tears  in  her  eyes, 
for  having  foolishly  accused  him  of  atheism ;  that  other  lady, 
with  the  stern  face,  for  having  harshly  replied  to  the  proposals 


560  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

of  his  noble  father,  whose  white  hairs  she  ought  rather  to  have 
honored;  Monsieur  Thuillier,  for  having  sacrificed  him  to 
ambition  ,•  Monsieur  Colleville,  for  not  performing  his  part  of 
father  and  choosing  for  his  daughter  the  worthiest  and  most 
honorable  man  ;  Monsieur  Minard,  for  having  tried  to  foist  his 
son  into  his  place.  There  are  but  two  persons  in  the  room  at 
this  moment  who  have  done  him  full  justice,  —  Madame 
Thuillier  and  Monsieur  l'Abbe  Gondrin.  Well,  I  shall  now  ask 
that  man  of  God  whether  we  can  help  doubting  the  divine 
justice  when  this  generous  young  man,  the  victim  of  all  of  us, 
is,  at  the  present  hour,  at  the  mercy  of  waves  and  tempests,  to 
which  for  three  long  years  he  is  consigned.' 

"  '  Providence  is  very  powerful,  monsieur,'  replied  the  Abbe" 
Gondrin.  «  God  will  protect  Monsieur  Felix  Phellion  wherever 
he  may  be,  and  I  have  the  firmest  hope  that  three  years  hence 
he  will  be  among  his  friends  once  more.' 

"  '  But  three  years !  '  said  Monsieur  Picot.  '  Will  it  still  be 
time  ?     Will  Mademoiselle  Colleville  have  waited  for  him  ? ' 

"  '  Yes,  I  swear  it  I  '  cried  the  young  girl,  carried  away  by  an 
impulse  she  could  not  control. 

"  Then  she  sat  down  again,  quite  ashamed,  and  burst  into 
tears. 

"  '  And  you,  Mademoiselle  Thuillier,  and  you,  Madame  Colle- 
ville, will  you  permit  this  young  lady  to  reserve  herself  for  one 
who  is  worthy  of  her  V ' 

"  '  Yes  !  Yes  ! '  cried  everybody ;  for  Monsieur  Picot's  voice, 
which  is  very  full  and  sonorous,  seemed  to  have  tears  in  it  and 
affected  everybody. 

" '*  Then  it  is  time,'  he  said,  '  to  forgive  Providence.' 

"  And  rushing  suddenly  to  the  door,  where  my  ear  was  glued 
to  the  keyhole,  he  very  nearly  caught  me. 

" '  Announce,'  he  said  to  me  in  a  very  loud  tone  of  voice, 
'  Monsieur  Felix  Phellion  and  his  family.' 

"  And  thereupon  the  door  of  a  side  room  opened,  and  five  or 
six  persons  came  out,  who  were  led  by  Monsieur  Picot  into  the 
salon. 

"  At  the  sight  of  her  lover,  Mademoiselle  Colleville  was  taken 
ill,  but  the  faint  lasted  only  a  minute  ;  seeing  Monsieur  Felix 
at  her  feet  she  threw  herself  into  Madame  Thuillier's  arms, 
crying  out :  — 

" '  Godmother  !    you  always  told  me  to  hope.' 


The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie.  561 

"  Mademoiselle  Thuillier,  who,  in  spite  of  her  harsh  nature 
and  want  of  education,  I  have  always  myself  thought  a  remark- 
able woman,  now  had  a  fine  impulse.  As  the  company  were 
about  to  go  into  the  dining-room,  — 

"  '  One  moment ! '  she  said. 

"  Then  going  up  to  Monsieur  Phellion,  senior,  she  said  to  him  : 

"  '  Monsieur  and  old  friend !  I  ask  you  for  the  hand  of  Mon- 
sieur Felix  Phellion  for  our  adopted  daughter,  Mademoiselle 
Colleville.' 

"  '  Bravo !  bravo  ! '  they  all  cried  in  chorus. 

"  '  My  God  ! '  said  Monsieur  Phellion,  with  tears  in  his  eyes ; 
1  what  have  I  done  to  deserve  such  happiness  ? ' 

" '  You  have  been  an  honest  man  and  a  Christian  without 
knowing  it/  replied  the  Abbe  Gondrin." 

Here  la  Peyrade  flung  down  the  manuscript. 

"You  did  not  finish  it,"  said  Corentin,  taking  back 
the  paper.  "However,  there  's  not  much  more.  Mon- 
sieur Henri  confesses  to  me  that  the  scene  had  moved 
him;  he  also  says  that,  knowing  the  interest  I  had 
formerly  taken  in  the  marriage,  he  thought  he  ought  to 
inform  me  of  its  conclusion;  ending  with  a  slightly  veiled 
suggestion  of  a  fee.  No,  stay,"  resumed  Corentin, 
"here  is  a  detail  of  some  importance:  — 

"  The  English  woman  seems  to  have  made  it  known  during 
dinner  that,  having  no  heirs,  her  fortune,  after  the  lives  of  her- 
self and  her  husband,  will  go  to  Felix.  That  will  make  him 
powerfully  rich  one  of  these  days." 

La  Peyrade  had  risen  and  was  striding  about  the  room 
with  rapid  steps. 

"Well,"  said  Corentin,  "what  is  the  matter  with  you?" 

"Nothing."- 

"  That  is  not  true,"  said  the  great  detective.  "I  think 
you  envy  the  happiness  of  that  young  man.  My  dear 
fellow,  permit  me  to  tell  you  that  if  such  a  conclusion 
were  to  your  taste,  you  should  have  acted  as  he  has  done. 
When  I  sent  you  two  thousand  francs  on  which  to  study 

36 


562  The  Lesser  Bourgeoisie. 

law,  T  did  not  intend  you  to  succeed  me;  I  expected  you 
to  row  your  galley  laboriously,  to  have  the  needful  cour- 
age for  obscure  and  painful  toil ;  your  day  would  infal- 
libly have  come.     But  you  chose  to  violate  fortune  —  " 

"  Monsieur!  " 

"  I  mean  hasten  it,  reap  it  before  it  ripened.  You 
flung  yourself  into  journalism;  then  into  business,  ques- 
tionable business;  you  made  acquaintance  with  Mes- 
sieurs Dutocq  and  Cerizet.  Frankly,  I  think  you  for- 
tunate to  have  entered  the  port  which  harbors  you  to- 
day. In  any  case,  you  are  not  sufficiently  simple  of 
heart  to  have  really  valued  the  joys  reserved  for  Felix 
Phellion.     These  bourgeois  —  " 

44  These  bourgeois,"  said  la  Peyrade,  quickly,  —  u  I 
know  them  now.  They  have  great  absurdities,  great 
vices  even,  but  they  have  virtues,  or,  at  the  least,  esti- 
mable qualities ;  in  them  lies  the  vital  force  of  our  corrupt 
society." 

44  Your  society !  "  said  Corentin,  smiling;  44you  speak 
as  if  you  were  still  in  the  ranks.  You  have  another 
sphere,  my  dear  fellow ;  and  you  must  learn  to  be  more 
content  with  your  lot.  Governments  pass,  societies 
perish  or  dwindle;  but  we  —  We  dominate  all  things; 
the  police  is  eternal." 

Note.  —  This  volume  ("Les  Petits  Bourgeois  ")  was  not  published 
until  1 854,  more  than  three  years  after  Balzac's  death  ;  although  he 
says  of  it  in  March,  1844:  "I  must  tell  you  that  my  work  entitled 
'  Les  Petits  Bourgeois,'  owing  to  difficulties  of  execution,  requires  still 
a  month's  labor,  although  the  book  is  entirely  written."  And  again, 
in  October,  1846,  he  says  :  "It  is  to  such  scruples  "  (care  in  perfecting 
his  work)  "  that  delays  which  have  injured  several  of  my  works  are 
due ;  for  instance,  '  Les  Paysans,'  which  has  long  been  nearly  finished, 
and  '  Les  Petits  Bourgeois,'  which  has  been  in  type  at  the  printing 
office  for  the  last  eighteen  months." 

THE   END. 


Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers1  Publications. 


2M$ac  in  <£ngli£l)* 


THE  VILLAGE  RECTOR. 

By  Honore  de  Balzac. 

Translated  by  Katharine  Prescott  Wormeley.     i2mo. 
Half  Russia.     Price,  #1.50. 


Once  more  that  wonderful  acquaintance  which  Balzac  had  with  all  callings 
appears  manifest  in  this  work.  Would  you  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  engineer's 
occupation  in  France?  Balzac  presents  it  in  the  whole  system,  with  its  aspects, 
disadvantages,  and  the  excellence  of  the  work  accomplished.  We  write  to-day 
of  irrigation  and  of  arboriculture  as  if  they  were  novelties  ;  yet  in  the  waste  lands 
of  Montagnac,  Balzac  found  these  topics ;  and  what  he  wrote  is  the  clearest 
exposition  of  the  subjects. 

But,  above  all,  in  "The  Village  Rector"  is  found  the  most  potent  of  religious 
ideas,  —  the  one  that  God  grants  pardon  to  sinners.  Balzac  had  studied  and 
appreciated  the  intensely  human  side  of  Catholicism  and  its  adaptiveness  to  the 
wants  of  mankind.  It  is  religion,  with  Balzac,  "  that  opens  to  us  an  inexhaustible 
treasure  of  indulgence."     It  is  true  repentance  that  saves. 

The  drama  which  is  unrolled  in  "The  Village  Rector  "  is  a  terrible  one,  and 
perhaps  repugnant  to  our  sensitive  minds.  The  selection  of  such  a  plot,  pitiless 
as  it  is,  Balzac  made  so  as  to  present  the  darkest  side  of  human  nature,  and  to 
show  how,  through  God's  pity,  a  soul  might  be  saved.  The  instrument  of  mercy 
is  the  Rector  Bonnet,  and  in  the  chapter  entitled  "  The  Rector  at  Work  "  he 
shows  how  religion  "  extends  a  man's  life  beyond  the  world."  It  is  not  sufficient 
to  weep  and  moan.  "That  is  but  the  beginning;  the  end  is  action."  The 
rector  urges  the  woman  whose  sins  are  great  to  devote  what  remains  of  her  life 
to  work  for  the  benefit  of  her  brothers  and  sisters,  and  so  she  sets  about  reclaim, 
ing  the  waste  lands  which  surround  her  chateau.  With  a  talent  of  a  superlative 
order,  which  gives  grace  to  Veronique,  she  is  like  the  Madonna  of  some  old  panel 
of  Van  Eyck's  Doing  penance,  she  wears  close  to  her  tender  skin  a  haircloth 
vestment.  For  love  of  her,  a  man  has  committed  murder  and  died  and  kept  his 
secret.  In  her  youth,  Veronique's  face  had  been  pitted,  but  her  saintly  life  had 
obliterated  that  spotted  mantle  of  smallpox.  Tears  had  washed  out  every  blemish. 
If  through  true  repentance  a  soul  was  ever  saved,  it  was  Veronique's.  This 
work,  too,  has  afforded  consolation  to  many  miserable  sinners,  and  showed  them 
the  way  to  grace. ' 

The  present  translation  is  to  be  cited  for  its  wonderful  accuracy  and  its  literary 
distinction.  We  can  hardly  think  of  a  more  difficult  task  than  the  Englishing  of 
Balzac,  and  a  general  reading  public  should  be  grateful  for  the  admirable  manner 
in  which  Miss  Wormeley  has  performed  her  task.  — New  York  Times. 


Sold  by  all  booksellers.    Mailed,  post-paid,  on  receipt 
of  price  by  the  Publishers, 

ROBERTS    BROTHERS,   Boston,  Mass. 


Messrs.  Roberts  Brothers'  Publications. 


2M?ac  in  <£ngligj). 


Memoirs  of  Two  Young  Married  Women. 

By  Honore  de  Balzac. 

Translated  by  Katharine  Prescott  Wormeley.     i2mo. 
Half  Russia.     Price,  $1.50. 


"There  are,"  says  Henry  James  in  one  of  his  essays,  "two  writers  In 
Balzac,  —  the  spontaneous  one  and  the  reflective  one,  the  former  of 
which  is  much  the  more  delightful,  while  the  latter  is  the  more  extraordi- 
nary." It  is  the  reflective  Balzac,  the  Balzac  with  a  theory,  whom  we 
get  in  the  "  Deux  Jeunes  Mariees,"  now  translated  by  Miss  Wormeley 
under  the  title  of  "  Memoirs  of  Two  Young  Married  Women."  The 
theory  of  Balzac  is  that  the  marriage  of  convenience,  properly  regarded, 
is  far  preferable  to  the  marriage  simply  from  love,  and  he  undertakes  to 
prove  this  proposition  by  contrasting  the  careers  of  two  young  girls  who 
have  been  fellow-students  at  a  convent.  One  of  them,  the  ardent  and 
passionate  Louise  de  Chaulieu,  has  an  intrigue  with  a  Spanish  refugee, 
finally  marries  him,  kills  him,  as  she  herself  confesses,  by  her  perpetual 
jealousy  and  exaction,  mourns  his  loss  bitterly,  then  marries  a  golden- 
haired  youth,  lives  with  him  in  a  dream  of  ecstasy  for  a  year  or  so,  and 
this  time  kills  herself  through  jealousy  wrongfully  inspired.  As  for  hel 
friend,  Renee  de  Maucombe,  she  dutifully  makes  a  marriage  to  please  her 
parents,  calculates  coolly  beforehand  how  many  children  she  will  have  and 
how  they  shall  be  trained;  insists,  however,  that  the  marriage  shall  be 
merely  a  civil  contract  till  she  and  her  husband  find  that  their  hearts  are 
indeed  one;  and  sees  all  her  brightest  visions  realized,  —  her  Louis  an 
ambitious  man  for  her  sake  and  her  children  truly  adorable  creatures. 
The  story,  which  is  told  in  the  form  of  letters,  fairly  scintillates  with 
brilliant  sayings,  and  is  filled  with  eloquent  discourses  concerning  the 
nature  of  love,  conjugal  and  otherwise.  Louise  and  Renee  are  both 
extremely  sophisticated  young  women,  even  in  their  teens ;  and  those 
who  expect  to  find  in  their  letters  the  demure  innocence  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  type  will  be  somewhat  astonished.  The  translation,  under  the 
circumstances,  was  rather  a  daring  attempt,  but  it  has  been  most  felicit- 
ously done.  —  The  Beacon. 


Sold  by  all  booksellers.     Mailed,  postpaid,  on  receipt  of 
price  by  the  Publishers, 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS.  Boston.  Mass. 


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